Like a new student on a first day at campus, guided by the
map, we boarded a public bus to SNU Gwangnak Campus . It was compact with other
students that we had to squeeze ourselves among those tall Koreans and stood
firm along that bumpy, hilly road drive.
All of us got excited upon seeing
the university's famous gate. "We
are finally in the student exchange programme!" I whispered to a friend next to me and we
giggled. As our destination, Engineering Building - is the last stop for the bus so it was like a
tour bus where we got to see the scenic views within the campus with autumn
leaves rendering most of the background. After few stops, we finally arrived.
However, I would rather called it an opportunity when we were actually stopped at the wrong
engineering building. After all, we had a chance to sneak a peek at these new
buildings, 301 & 302 Engineering Building which housed specifically for
engineering students.
Knowing we were late for an
arranged meeting with people from architecture department, we sped up our steps
down the hill, stepping on those dried crunchy leaves before we finally arrived
at the right building. This building seemed remote compared to other buildings. Possibly because its recessed,
non-avant garde entrance - something which is not what I expected when visiting
any architecture school. At least, a little nice landscape would do. I could
not help but had a little thought of comparing it with our own faculty in UPM. We
have raised foyer with water fountain welcoming our guests, nice big trees
shading the pathway and such, but this building..
Never judge a book by its cover! Greeting
all of us at lobby was an open gallery contained the memories of the past years
students with some historical background about the formation of the department.
It was fun seeing all of their memories
wrapped up in black and white photos and displayed in the perspex boxes were
the old school badge, necktie and few more items that they proudly wore in
those days to distinguish themselves from other school.
After exploring the lobby and
played with the interactive wall that responded to our movement, we headed to
architecture department at Level 6 . The representative walked us around the architecture
territory and all I can say is that it was pretty impressive seeing the
students' works along the corridor - they experimented with various materials,
mechanism and methods. It was an eye-opener.
Despite of dull classrooms
arrangement, somehow I kind of like the way the architect created the
circulation around the courtyard. It gives students opportunity to have cross
interaction from all sides of walkway, be it visually or verbally.
The tour ended in quite a short
time. It was a bit frustrated though since we were not able to visit the studio
areas. I remembered visiting Institut Teknologi Bandung and Universitas Taruma
Nagara in Indonesia few years ago, the tour was extensive! We got to see their
workshop, performance area, gallery and even given time to mingle with students
in their studios. If compared between these schools and SNU architecture
department, I would say that SNU's wins at portraying their image as one of the
oldest department ever existed in Seoul and have strong background but lacks in
portraying the image of architecture school which supposedly to be fun,
explorative and artistic.
The only thing they can proudly
say is that "We have starchitect's piece
in our land!" Yes, they do have - a museum of art by Rem Koolhas,
located right next to SNU main gate. And it is a magnificent piece.
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