Kyu Sung Woo Architects, an international architectural practice headquartered in Cambridge, MA. has designed the new IT Convergence Building for KAIST (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology). Established in 1971 as the nation’s first graduate school specializing in science and engineering education and research, KAIST has become Korea’s foremost center for strategic R&D projects with international significance. The new IT Convergence Building will for the first time bring together the fields of Computer Science, and Electronics and Electrical Engineering into one 26,000sm interdisciplinary building.

Kyu Sung Woo’s design focuses on bringing students and professors of these varied disciplines together, through simple and clear spatial organizations and materiality. The building features transparent research labs and faculty offices designed around a central spine of service cores and large multi-level, indoor and outdoor, social spaces that maximum efficiency and enhance cross-discipline communication.

Three large atriums within the central spine are focal points of the building community.  Each department has their own 3-story lounge space at either end of the building. Both lounge spaces have access to outside terraces and are designed as interior extensions of these outdoor spaces.  The central 9-story high glass atrium brings everyone together.  It begins at the main lobby and runs the entire height of the building to a glass roof above, providing plenty of daylight at the center of the building. The atrium contains the public elevators and is surrounded by corridors and student lounges; making it a significant visual, physical and symbolic connection between all the levels.

The influx of daylight is an important principle in the spatial organization of the building. Numerous recesses in the overall massing express the interior space while allowing light to penetrate deep into the building and provide a direct connection to the exterior in the form of green roof terraces. Spatial connections, natural light and economy of materials are a design priority.  The building is a concrete structure and many of the surfaces within the building are exposed concrete.  Smooth, painted drywall is used sporadically as if a precious finish layer over the contrasting rough concrete. The interior corridor partitions are all glass in order to extend the visual communication between spaces.

The exterior of the building also uses few material types; it is clad in a combination of solid and perforated aluminum panels, glass, and extruded cement panels. A metal parallel louver system is applied to the south façade which is designed to shade the research offices from harsh summer sun, while allowing maximum sun light in the winter months.

The building establishes a new identity for the campus at its East Gate entrance, creating a front green quad, which is complimented by a more private, walled garden in the back of the building on the roof of the open-air parking garage. Large surrounding trees isolate the garden from outside environments, while seating and walking paths create a quite setting for contemplation and social interaction.