Canteen too small - Case study (Blog 4)

I did a case study on Shanghai Art & Design Academy.


(Shanghai Art & Design Academy)

The canteen in Shanghai Art & Design Academy has approximately 300 seats and has 7 counters. The arrangement of the seats provides just the right amount of space needed to walk pass and for queuing.

 

(Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts)

Comparing it with NAFA's canteen, both of them has too little seats available for people to dine during the peak period. This shows that the size of the canteen is defined by the students. No matter how big and gigantic your canteen is, if there are a lot of students in the school, the canteen is still considered small.

Canteen Too Small- Research Sources (Blog 3)

Electronic sources

http://www.tbns.net/pjinchina/yangzhou3108_1609/canteen.html

http://sheronologue.blogspot.sg/2014/09/wanderingseouls-day-27-of-143-cat-cafe.html

Books

Restaurant Success by the Numbers: A Money-Guy’s Guide to Opening the Next Hot Spot Paperback by Roger Fields

(Providing insight about creating and maintaining sound financial decisions while catering to a broad audience and reinforcing the importance of knowing customers with some interesting facts. e.g Eighteen to twenty-four year olds eat out more often than any other group.)

The Restaurant Manager’s Handbook: How to Set Up, Operate, and Manage a Financially Successful Food Service Operation by Douglas Robert Brown

(This book consists of basic cost controls, choosing of proper equipment, training employees and having effective restaurant layouts.)

magazines

www.fsrmagazine.com/marketing/managing-wait-time

 (Managing customers smartly by looking after customers who are waiting by providing drinks and earning some money(tips) at the same time.)

www.qsrmagazine.com/franchising/best-way-assemble-your-crew

(Knowing which employee suits which job best as employees play a huge role in a restaurant. If your employee is a slow, demotivated kind of person you are bound to lose some customers. But if your employee is slow but a very cheerful and happy person then it'll be a whole different situation.)

Canteen Too Small- Empathy (Blog 2)

What is empathy?

Empathy is the experience of understanding another person's condition from their perspective. You place yourself in their shoes and feel what they are feeling.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/basics/empathy 

Since my topic is based on canteens being small, there are a few things i need to consider. For example, the stallholders and the customers.

Canteen too small
Customer's point of view -No place to sit due to limited seats, due to limited space.
                                        -Sick of queuing because canteen is so small that there is only one                                          stall.
                                        -Gulping down food because seat is being found at the very last                                              minute.
                                        -No time to eat

Stallholder's point of view -Being stressed out all the time as the queue is always so long.

(Above are all the possible thoughts i could think of.)

I feel that when a designer designs something for the very first time, you need empathy. One will only know how their design should be like after understanding people. 
Empathizing is important as it guides us to the right direction.





                                         

Design process - Canteen too small (Blog 1)

                                    Canteen Too Small

My group (group 6), chose to work on the topic, 'Canteen Too Small'.

                                          Mindmap 

What- Food courts in shopping mall, school/ staff canteens, restaurants

When- Breakfast, Lunch, Afternoon Tea, Dinner

Why- Layout of interior, Big kitchen, Arrangement of tables, Cramped space

How- Use standing tables, set time limits, Lighting and colors of the wall to make interior look spacious visually, Bring own lunchbox to school?

Advantages- Easy to clean, Less time needed to clean up, less manual labor

Disadvantages- No place to sit, long queue, noisy, crowded, unpleasant dining experience

                                Example of a canteen being too small
This is a canteen at Mei-ling Middle School during lunch break. Students have to be quick to get here if they don't want to wait in a long queue with an empty stomach.


My team and I chose this topic because we are facing the exact same problem right here in NAFA. Our school canteen is incredibly small and cramp and is not able to cater to many students.


I find this topic quite challenging because we can't possibly break down the walls of a canteen, but instead to work within the space given, or by using the landscape outside the canteen. Either way requires us to think of something that is convenient, easily accessible and to satisfy everyone.

My 3D Fundamental final model :)

Previously, my model of the cup did not even look like a cup...

Yucks right?

So I'm gonna blog about the transformation process :)

To make the other side of the cup (the cloth part) look like a cup, i made use of 2 ice cream cup and i reused the same cloth.

I then outline the original cup to the ice cream cup so that it will fit perfectly when combined together.

Then i stick the bottom and top together and start pasting one layer of cloth over it.

To make the handle, i used a cardboard and same thing, cover over with cloth.

This is the outcome of the covered ice cream cup with handle :)

I tore out parts of the cloth that has extreme burnt parts. ( Tore out. because the effect is nicer. )

                                                  and pasted it over the first layer of cloth!

It's so much better than before!!! I can even lift the whole thing up with the cloth handle. Then for the Mdf board i used a tablecloth to cover up :)

I'm glad 3D Fundamental is finally over!!! :) :) :)

3D Fundamental assessment work (Juxtaposition) 2

      

Continued...

This is a model of War and Peace. As you can see that the gun is shooting out flowers, to show peace and the handcuffs are opened to show freedom.

Poor vs Rich. My friend used pills to show. The pill on the left is flooded with coins and cash to show that rich can afford medical bills. Whereas on the right, the pill is bloody and surrounded with spikes, showing that if they fall ill, they just have to suffer.

Beauty and Pain. I believe most women in the world are like that. No matter how much pain you are feeling or going through, at the end of the day, as long as you feel pretty and beautiful, so what? Just like how it's being represented by the spikes in the heels.

This is also on War and Peace, where the knife is now a feather and the missile is filled with color pencils.

A fish covered with feathers of a bird. This is referring to the chemicals being led into the ocean and birds loosing their feathers. Then if this goes on in the long run, the fishes may look like this one day. The fish looks super real!

Don't judge a book by its cover. Snow white thought the apple was fresh and juicy, but then she got poisoned because what she didn't know was that the apple was actually rotten, as shown from the skull behind the apple. And the hand is snow whites' hand when she fainted.

Knowledge. A book is filled with knowledge. But most people, like myself, can actually read a book, But in fact, not really reading, which explains the transparent book, with transparent pages. Loving this model because it relates to me :D

Last one of all. MINE. The ugliest and worst model with a weak juxtapose theme. Mine was previously on Rich and Poor. I used a cup to show because a cup is what we use to drink water. The rich, can drink whenever they want to and can go to the extend of buying a very expensive cup. While the poor from poor countries can not even find water to drink sometimes and i used a cloth to show because cloth can't hold water. But then teacher say the idea was too complicated and i should just compare the materials. So during presentation, i said that my work was on Solid vs Flimsy and I felt dumb standing in front of class when there wasn't even a meaning behind my model. Because i just compared materials. 

BUT there's still hope! Changing the looks of my model to make it look like a cup. 

Till next time! :) 

River Safari 1

Art is everywhere. Even in River Safari! I had so much fun taking all these pictures and discovering new things :)

The place they designed for the beaver to stay consist of woods and branches and if it were to climb up, it'll lead itself to a mini river, where the ducks are. Isn't it a cute design?

Beavers. Known commonly for making dams. But i never would have thought that a dam could go as big as 8 football fields and can be seen from a satellite above. Isn't it incredible?? How the heck does a beaver construct a dam without the wood or whatever flowing away? they may have constructed it in a certain way to prevent it from flowing away. A form of design and architecture!

What's more interesting and disgusting is that a beavers dispense/ urine can be found in certain medication! I also once read that certain perfumes contain their discharge too! because it smells like vanilla. Gross..

The Indian Gharial. Their skin, filled with lines with patterns, creating the hardness and roughness, that protects them and allows them to camouflage in the wild. The tank that they were being put in was bright and clean, with logs, to really get a wild life kind of feel.

 

This tank that contained 3 different kinds of species was tall and wide and with lesser sunlight, making the atmosphere of the tank looking eerie and creepy.

This snake, the Elephant Trunk Snake, is covered with lines as well with patterns on it. And it really does look like an elephant trunk. The tank designed for this snake blends with it really well and it is bright. Logs and rocks are also used to create the tank. 

The Golden Pheasant. With feathers that are colorful and bright, It is no wonder they kept the area simple, so as to let the pheasant stand out.

To be continued...

Kai Kai and Jia Jia. They are unique in having black and white on their furs. It's like a contrast.