On October 15, the opening ceremony for the two new graduate-student dormitories - Nadl Hall and Yeoul Hall - took place in the presence of President Sung Mo Kang and approximately 50 other school personnel.
Both dormitories consist of nine floors, from the basement to the eighth floor, and measure to 3,480 square-meters and will accommodate 600 students in total. The north-facing dormitory, Nadl Hall, will be used by male students whereas the south-facing dormitory, Yeoul Hall, will be used by female students. The halls do not take the form of the block cuboid structure conventional in KAIST, but are instead shaped in the form of a distorted “V”. These dormitories stand out for their modern architecture and light pastel toned facades of yellow and lime green, marking a notable change from the older, more traditional-brick-walled dormitories such as Sarang Hall and Areum Hall.
As is the case with most other dormitories on campus, Nadl and Yeoul Hall are equipped with a host of facilities such as a housemaster’s room, a visitor’s room (for parents) and a fitness room on the first floor, as well as dorm rooms, student lounges, laundry rooms, restrooms and shower rooms from the second floor upward. Unlike the vast majority of dormitories on campus, each of these two dormitories also contains two rooms for disabled students.
Special care has been given to designing the halls in such a way that all the rooms would receive adequate sunlight and could be easily ventilated. The buildings have also received eco-friendly certification for its eco-friendly building materials. In addition, both halls will also supply 60% of its air-conditioning and heating from geothermal sources. However, a small inconvenience for potential residents of this modern dormitory are the rather narrow windows that can be seen from the Endless Road, which have, in fact, been carefully contrived for safety reasons.
The construction started in January 2013 and went through 18 months of construction, having just been completed this August. A total of 18.7 billion Korean Won was invested in this project.