University Times

The Korean Heritage Classroom will be dedicated at a 2:30 p.m. ceremony Nov. 15 in Heinz Chapel. The classroom is Pitt’s 30th Nationality Room and the first new room since 2012.

A Korean cultural festival will follow at 3:30 p.m. in the Commons Room of the Cathedral of Learning. The Korean Heritage Classroom, located in 304 CL, will be open to visitors.

The design concept was inspired by the “Hall of Enlightenment,” the main lecture hall of South Korea’s Sungkyunkwan University. Founded in 1398, Sungkyunkwan served as Korea’s royal academy and was the region’s foremost institution of higher education for nearly two centuries.

Ornate screens separate the lecture hall from the “courtyard,” here represented by a sunlit bay in the rear of the classroom.

Like the Hall of Enlightenment, the Korean Heritage Classroom depicts three connected rooms, with two oak columns forming a symbolic boundary. The center room is longer with a lofty ceiling. Sungkyunkwan officials used the center room for important public events. The two smaller adjoining rooms were used for faculty research and private meetings.

The ceiling of the central room is adorned with a pair of wooden phoenixes, inspired by the royal palace of the Joseon Dynasty. Windows are covered with a paper product made of mulberry tree fibers. Desks are made of hard oak and have seating for groups of two or three students.

On display in a niche in the classroom is a depiction of a commencement ceremony in the Sungkyunkwan lecture hall.