Dedication Ceremony Held to Celebrate the Remodeling and Partial Construction of Hak-gwan
- 작성처
- Date2023.09.01
- 38497
Hak-gwan reborn as a future-oriented educational space where tradition and high technology coexist
Dedication ceremony successfully held with the attendance of about 250 participants including donors
Ewha Womans University held a dedication ceremony to celebrate the remodeling and partial construction of Hak-gwan in the square in front of the building on August 30, 2023 (Wed.). The ceremony was attended by about 250 participants, such as Ewha officials including Chairperson of the Board of Trustees of Ewha Womans University Chang Myong-Sue, President Eun Mee Kim, former Ewha Presidents Chang Sang and Kim Heisook, and President Lee Myeong-kyeong of the Ewha Alumnae Association; donors such as Chairperson Moo Kyung Jung of the Korea Zinc ESG Committee, who was attended on behalf of Korea Zinc’s Honorary Chairperson Choi Chang-gurl, Chairperson Yu Jung-geun of the Gyeongwon Cultural Foundation, and Chairperson Jeong So-yeong of the Heunghan Foundation; and other distinguished guests from outside Ewha including Head of the Seodaemun-gu Office Lee Sung-heon, in order to celebrate the new beginning of Hak-gwan, which has been reborn as a future-oriented educational space where tradition and high technology coexist.
At its inception, Hak-gwan consisted of ten wooden buildings that were erected to meet the demand from the rapid increase in the number of students in the post-Korean War era. Hak-gwan was completed in 1964 after five rounds of construction projects. It soon came to accommodate so many classes that it was nicknamed “C-gwan” after the first letter of “classrooms” and also served as a central hub for liberal arts courses, various general elective classes, and large-scale lectures. Hak-gwan is a building of fond memories where almost all Ewha students have had at least one class. Due to the building’s deterioration, it was selected for reconstruction as part of the Campus Master Plan in 2014, and it has been transformed once again in the two and a half years after the commencement of the latest remodeling and partial construction project in 2021.
The Hak-gwan building now comprises one basement floor and eight above-ground floors, with a total ground area of about 17,640 m2. As the building includes a multipurpose hall suitable for sports activities like basketball, a flexible learning space, an open computer lab, a 400-seat tiered lecture hall, and smart, high-tech classrooms, it has become a 21st-century learning space that combines both humanistic imagination and advanced technology.
Among these facilities, the flexible learning space will be used as a creative space for study and relaxation. It has been named the “Chung Ii-sook Hall” in honor of former Ewha President Chung Ii-sook who led the school into its second century under the vision of the “University as a Center of Education and Research.” Meanwhile, other spaces were named after donors: the “Korea Zinc Lecture Hall,” suitable for various classroom activities like theater performances; the “Heunghan Foundation Lecture Hall,” which has been transformed into a comfortable classroom environment; the “Europa Leseraum,” a reading room sponsored by alumna Kim Jeong-ok; the Computer Lab generously sponsored by alumnae of the College of Liberal Arts and the alumnae associations from eight departments; and the Active Learning Classroom created through a generous donation by the International Foundation for Ewha Womans University (IFEWU).
In addition to the remodeling and partial construction of Hak-gwan, as part of the preparation for the 150th anniversary of its founding, Ewha plans to reconstruct Helen Hall, Ewha’s first library, into a state-of-the-art library facility, and the Human Ecology Building into a space for multidisciplinary convergence and research as well as university-industry collaboration and business startups for four Ewha colleges, along with the entire western area of the campus. The continuous improvement of the education and research infrastructure will enable Ewha to lead the educational environment in the future and play a leading role in nurturing convergence talent in line with the Fourth Industrial Revolution.