DGIST Facility Management Team says that the second student dormitory is built properly complying with construction laws

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Facility Management Team also promised to strengthen smoking facilities

 

Note: This article is based on the future plan and construction data of the second student dormitory provided by Serveone and the facility management team.

On November 3, 2017, reporter Jae-woo Park of DNA, reported the inconvenience of the secondary dormitory to the facility management team. Inconveniences were collected from survey answered by 74 students. 30 percent of students said they were not satisfied with their second student dormitory. The main reasons of unsatisfaction were ▲ the lack of the convenient facilities ▲ insufficiency of sound insulation ▲ undivided of the toilet and the shower room.

 

Let's look at the background of the secondary dorm’s design and construction first. Student dormitory of DGIST has been constructed in two steps: the primary(H201 - H204) and the secondary (H205 – H207). Both dormitories are administered by Serveone.

Construction of the primary dormitory was ordered by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology. At that time, 2.12 million won was invested per square meter. On the other hand, the construction of the secondary dorm was ordered by the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning (current Ministry of Science and ICT) and costed 1.7 million won per square meter. In other words, the secondary dorm costed about 19 percent(420,000 won) less per square meter than the first one. As the unit price of the primary dorm is higher, it was possible to build more convenience facilities, and separate toilet and shower room inside the dormitory room.

 

■ Lack of convenience facilities

About the unsatisfactoriness related to convenience facilities, head of the Division of Research Administration said "DGIST have tried a lot, but we want you to understand that there are lot of missing facilities in secondary dormitory compared to the primary one because of the lack of budget. "

"The rooms on the first floor were designed for common use, " head of the Division of Research Administration said in response to the inconvenience of having no lounge in each floor. Also, he said that " ‘One washing machine per 50 people and one dryer per 100 people’ are the standard for installation, and additional installations can be done if necessary, " in response to the shortage of laundry facilities. Moreover, he advised us to use the vending machine of the primary dorm lobby after the convenience store closed. He also said" Since the operating hours at the secondary dorm’s convenience store has extended from 1 a.m. to 2 a.m., purchasing things at night will become more convenient." On the opinion that the secondary dorm has less convenient facilities than the primary one, he stated, " At the time of the secondary dorm was built, we promised the government to let students to use the facilities in the primary dorm because of the budget problem.”

Serveone promised that they will solve problem of the smell of spices from the cooking facilities by inspecting and replacing the ventilation fan. " If it is not solved after the replacement, they will consider installation of additional ventilation fans.

 

■ Insufficient noise insulation

Students living in top floor reported that they have problem with sleeping because of rooftop devices. Regarding this, he said, " We measured the noise level at the top floors, but it was 38 dB, which is lower than the noise standard (45 dB) in residential areas.”

The issue of inter-room noise was also addressed. According to facility management team, the wall of primary dormitory is 200 mm thick. In contrast, wall of secondary dormitory is 150 mm thick. According to the Regulation on the criteria for building evacuation and fire protection etc., the thickness of the wall should exceed 100 mm. In other words, there is no problem under the construction law.

 

■ The shape of the room and the location of furniture

About the small room size and windows, he said “The room has been built 3.49 ㎡ which is larger than the original design. And that size per person is the maximum.” In addition, he said “It was inevitable as the boiler is installed in each room.” The issue of the closing sound of door was also discussed. The door of each room was designed in the form of fire doors according to the Building Act. So, if you have any problem about it you can call Serveone service center 053-785-8282 to adjust the tension of the door closer.

He added, " We had no choice about ▲ ceiling height ▲ room size ▲ separate construction of toilet and shower room, because of the budget."

 

In addition, on the day of the meeting, problem about the cigarette smoke coming into the room from the smoking area was also discussed. the head of the facility management team said, " We will invest our budget to strengthen smoking facilities around the dormitory to prevent cigarette smoke from getting into room.”

 

Lastly, head of Serveone added, "Since we are considering students as a first priority, we would like to ask students to come to our office or call us anytime if they have any proposal or inconvenience.”

 

Reporter Tae Seong Lyu, nafrog@dgist.ac.kr