Saulėtekis

Applying, receiving an invitation to study at your chosen university, and arriving in Vilnius are the first steps for every VU student starting their academic life. For many students from another city, the start of their independent life is marked by moving into a dormitory. The history of student dormitory life in Lithuania can be traced back to the 16th-century Jesuit College bursaries, which were often reserved for poor students, providing them with accommodation and meals. However, life in a bursary was different from life in a dormitory for students today. Each bursary had its own superintendent, who was also responsible for nurturing the students. What you see today is part of a student campus project that has been under construction since the 1960s. During the Soviet era, it was decided to build a student campus in the Saulėtekis district. According to the first plans for the student campus, there were to be three sectors of buildings in the area: accommodation, education, and leisure. The first two student dormitories had already been built in the area by 1974; they were dubbed ‘New York’ by the students because they were among the first 16-storey buildings of their kind in Vilnius.

The invention of the laser in the 1960s was a breakthrough in physical science. Today, lasers are found in all walks of life, from household laser printers to high-tech laser devices used in medical equipment. World-renowned laser discoveries by Lithuanian scientists are influencing the research of foreign scientists. Professor Algis Petras Piskarskas is considered to be the pioneer of laser science in Lithuania, and his research in the field of light phenomena and sources of light has reached the international heights of the Nobel Prize. Today, the Laser Research Center and its open-access complex ‘Naglis’ are used for research in laser physics, non-linear optical phenomena, laser spectroscopy, laser applications and the development of laser technologies.

When Lithuania was occupied by the Soviets, higher educational institutions were reorganised according to the Soviet model. They became a tool for the deployment of an ideology favourable to the Soviet government. The repression during the occupation and the desire to restrict various areas of people’s lives also affected institutions of higher education. Members of the community who did not conform to the ideology were expelled from universities and persecuted. However, in the late Soviet period, the desire for free self-expression became increasingly evident. This sentiment was particularly evident among students. In the 1970s, the cultural life of the youth of Vilnius was supplemented by student-organised discos: from the VU physicists’ ‘sit-down disco’ to widely popular discos such as ‘Studija’ or ‘Amicus’. It was in the current premises of the Vilnius Tech Library that the ‘Studija’ disco was located, competing with the ‘Amicus’ disco that was held in the premises of the current VU Business School. The discotheques featured music of various genres, Lithuanian bands, and covers of foreign bands. However, disco-goers were constantly monitored, and the musical repertoire always had to be approved by the authorities. During the period of independence, Vilnius Tech took over the premises and in 2000, a library was opened there. In 2007, the first internet reading room in Lithuania was opened in this library, which was open 24 hours a day.

In 1998, the trolleybus network was extended deeper into the Saulėtekis area. Before then, students had to walk to the Antakalnis trolleybus roundabout to get to and from lectures in the centre of Vilnius. Imagine the bleak and frosty winter mornings or evenings and the remote Saulėtekis… It is because of such journeys that the dormitories there got the name ‘Kamchatka’, the farthest corner of Russia. The dormitories here were built a little later than ‘New York’ when the Saulėtekis campus was being increasingly expanded. Today, it is home to students from Vilnius Tech and VU.

As Saulėtekis has expanded and modernised, new science and business centres continue to fill the district. Seeking the integration of science and business in Lithuania, Sunrise Valley was established in Saulėtekis in 2003, comprising VU, Vilnius Tech, and other science centres. One of the objectives of Sunrise Valley is to promote cooperation between business and science. And the modern, sleekly shaped administrative building of the Saulėtekis Valley Science and Technology Park blends in perfectly with the surrounding nature. 

Vilnius Tech dates back to 1956, when the Vilnius Evening (School) Department was attached to Kaunas Polytechnic Institute. A little more than a decade later, the Vilnius branch was renamed the Vilnius Civil Engineering Institute, and the construction of its building in Saulėtekis started in 1970. In 1996, the Institute became Vilnius Gediminas Technical University. Since 2020, this higher educational institution has been known by the abbreviation ‘Vilnius Tech’. In 2016, the old Vilnius Tech building was connected to an eleven-storey, unusually shaped administrative building via a passageway. The ‘Sunrise Building’ houses Vilnius Tech’s Faculties of Environmental Engineering, Business Management, Fundamental Sciences and Construction, as well as the Centre for International Studies.

The construction of these three parallel buildings began in the 1970s; they were connected by a wing on the rear façade of the buildings. Today, the campus houses the VU Faculties of Law, Communication, Economics and Business Administration, as well as the Faculty of Physics. The VU Information Technology Services Centre is also located here; it dates back to the first Computing Laboratory founded in 1963 under the Department of Computational Mathematics of the VU Faculty of Physics and Mathematics. The first computing machines were purchased for this laboratory, the first of which was a first-generation ‘Minks-14’ lamp-electronic calculating machine, which started operating in the current premises of the Faculty of Chemistry on Naugardo Street. After the completion of this complex of VU buildings, the current Information Technology Service Centre was moved here, which to this day provides modern information technology service systems and represents the University in the development and application of IT services at home and abroad.

The VU Library was founded in 1570 and is one of the oldest libraries in the Baltic States. The Scientific Communication and Information Centre (‘SCIC’, or ‘MKIC’ in Lithuanian) is a modern branch of the VU Library. The SCIC is open 24/7, so the library is always open for students who enjoy burning the midnight oil with their books or written work. The library complex itself, like three boulders of stone, is situated in a wooded part of Saulėtekis, which provides a kind of tranquillity for productive work in the library reading rooms. Designed by architect Rolandas Palekas, the library building was named the best architectural work in urban planning and architecture in 2013.

In 2016, the ‘VU Life Sciences Center’ was established by merging the Institute of Biotechnology, the Institute of Biochemistry, and the Biological Departments of the Faculty of Geosciences. It is dedicated to research in biology, ecology, genetics, and other natural sciences. Look closely at the exterior of the building, as it has elements that resemble the conjunction of cells. The Herbarium and the Zoological Museum are also located here. The Herbarium collects, preserves, and scientifically studies plants and fungi using various methods, and has exhibits dating back to the 19th century, while the Zoological Museum is the oldest in Lithuania, dating back to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. It has a rich collection of invertebrates and vertebrates. The Herbarium and the Museum of Zoology can be visited by appointment only.

The Centre for Physical Sciences and Technology was established in 2010 and brings together the different branches of the natural sciences based on physics, chemistry, and technology. It has become perhaps the largest science centre in Lithuania and the Baltic States. It conducts research on lasers and optoelectronic technologies, materials science, and nanotechnology, as well as semiconductor physics and electronics. The innovative centre has a modern exterior, depicting one of the most advanced materials of the 21st century, the graphene crystal lattice.