WKU Alumni Home Officially Inaugurated

Designed and created by WKUers, the newly-inaugurated WKU Alumni Home is located on the first floor of Ge Hekai Hall. It provides a comfortable, free, and limitless space for the WKU alumni presents WKU’s philosophy of “Start Here, Go Anywhere”, and brings the alumni from all over the world closer.

I. Embrace Each Other and Explore Nature

As a precise expression of WKU alumni culture and the eternal common home of WKU students, the Alumni Home is full of warmth and reflects WKU students’ unique and novel ideas.

In terms of design, the Alumni Home gets captures the big picture with the detailed long-lasting theme of “Nature and Eternity” of human history throughout its architectural atmosphere to reflect the beautiful landscapes of the WKU campus. In terms of the arrangement, tables and chairs made of handpicked wood and LED lamps with soft light create a warm and comfortable atmosphere, allowing alumni to feel the mild and pleasant climate of South China indoors and relive the sunny days on campus. Meanwhile, this arrangement can further detail the alumni’s inner feelings and thoughts about man and nature.

II. Warm Design and Chief Designer’s Message

For Zhao Ruzhen, the chief designer and senior student at the Department of Architecture of WKU, the most interesting design of the Alumni Home is observing how time changes our surroundings in silence. As quoted, “Over time, the colors of wood and steel will gradually change to the bronze color, giving a new look to the Alumni Home”.

In addition, taking into account the function of the Alumni Home, Zhao created two completely different appearances of the Alumni Home with the image of the disc, supplemented by appropriate furniture and decoration. “As a link between alumni and their alma mater, the Alumni Home can display the features of WKU externally and serve as a platform for exchange and cooperation internally.” As long as the conditions here are used flexibly, the Alumni Home can adapt to a variety of different activities. Whether it is used for casual gatherings, parties, academic discussions, workshops, or exhibitions, the alumni can expand their imagination, creativity and experience the various assistance and convenience provided by the Alma mater for WKU students. Meanwhile, this process of assembly and reorganization contains countless possibilities, which will eventually gather again into a whole, promoting WKU and its alumni to cooperate well together.

III. Pull Together to Present a Gift to WKU

The design theme and plan were clearly defined, followed by the construction process that everyone expected and looked forward to. However, realizing the design from draft into practice was challenging considering multi-party cooperation. To turn these creative ideas into reality, it was necessary to be patient and cooperate. Due to the unique characteristics of the assembled furniture, there were very few manufacturers available in the market to achieve this project. During the entire construction process, daily routines had to be in place, including was repeated negotiations, revisions of details, adjustments of budget, determination of scheme, trial assemblies of materials, repeated deliberations and confirmations, and team members communicated until every obstacle was completed. With the strong support of WKU and the collaboration between the WKU Alumni Association and designers, the WKU Alumni Home was finally inaugurated on the occasion of WKU’s 10th Anniversary which brought a different landscape to the campus.

In 2022, the WKU Alumni Home will be officially completed, making it a great place for alumni and WKU students to exchange ideas and experiences. At that time, the WKU Alumni Association will invite alumni to return to WKU and visit the “new home”.