How does it solve the problem?

The final design really solves the problem. Due to the limited space in Singapore, a too small canteen cannot be expanded anymore. If we do something to the canteen itself, for example renovation for the interior and change the furniture, these things do not solve the problem completely.

Therefore, the final design idea is about adding an additional canteen which can serve many people but does not need a big space, portable and very flexible. The purpose of this portable canteen is to reduce the density of a too small canteen in the area. Therefore, this portable canteen does not have to parked at a certain area for a whole day, it can be parked there during the lunch time at about 11 until 3.

This portable canteen can be parked anywhere, such as at park and even at parking area. At NAFA, this portable canteen can be parked inside the campus area, in front of Lim Hak Tai Gallery entrance. This area is very spacious, so the portable canteen will not block cars' way.

Besides that, this portable canteen also equipped by high technology, such as barcode pricing system and tap card payment. It is also designed well to function optimally, for example the flippable long table and bench, and also pulled out canopy.

This portable canteen is a great solution to the problem 'Canteen too Small'.

A2 Layout of Final Design

Final Design

From the five main ideas, I combined several ideas into one final design. Those ideas are portable canteen, vending machine, flippable table, barcode and tap card pricing system.

The final design is a portable canteen that divide into two parts: fresh food canteen and vending machine. This portable canteen serves as an additional to the existing canteen of an area. It is supported by high technology system, well-design furniture and interior.

 

This picture shows the fresh food canteen side of the portable canteen. The long table and bench are flippable, the canopy is also can be pulled out. There are tray racks under the order table for self-service. There is a cashier that accept payment by tap card and barcode pricing system.

This is the vending machine part of the portable canteen. There are many kinds of food, such as pizza, pasta and soup for western; ramen noodle, rice and fried food for eastern; also bread, sandwich and burger for snacks. The payment for the vending machine is by tap card.

Elevation view of the portable canteen.

Interior of the portable canteen.

This is the back view of the portable canteen. To help costumer self-cleaning the canteen, there are track return racks and trash bin.

Our group made a prototype for the final design to help people understand clearer about our design. The prototype was made from mounting board and art card. From the model, can be seen clearly the interior of the portable canteen, the flippable table and bench, also the division between canteen side and the vending machine side.

Final design prototype

5 Main Ideas

From the brainstorming of 101 solutions, I have chosen several ideas and combine those into five main ideas. These are the five main ideas:

This is portable canteen. It is good because it is flexible and can be parked anywhere. What not so good is the expensive cost for the car production and maximum three staffs to serve inside.

This is double queue line vending machine. It is good because this vending machine is different from the usual. In order to reduce the queue, both side of the vending machine can be used. It also can be placed in the corner so it doesn't take big space. What not so good is this machine is more expensive than the usual one and vending machine food is not as fresh as canteen food.

This idea is about pricing system and cutlery. The best pricing system is by using barcode and tap card for payment, because it will make the payment process faster. If using barcode is too expensive, we can also use different color for the plates that represent the price. Another idea is the two in one cutlery. There is spoon-fork and fork-knife, which are good because make people eat easier and faster. What not so good about the cutlery is instead make people eat faster, it become slower for people who is not accustomed to use the cutlery.

This idea is about build a canteen on every floor. It is good because people can go to their own level canteen and the canteen will not be too crowded. What not so good is the expensive cost to build and maintain the canteen.

This idea is about the canteen interior. Use bright color and plain pattern for wall and floor, also can use mirror to make an illusion of a wide space. For the furniture, use flippable table, build in cabinet and locker for costumers' bags and things. Sliding door and standing table are also good to save space.

101 Solutions

I did a brainstorming of 101 solutions to solve 'Canteen too small'. Brainstorming is suitable to help people find innovative solutions to problems. I came out with broad ideas start from the possible until the nearly impossible ideas.

 

The idea covers all aspects start from the interior, furniture, objects, canteen rule, pricing and paying system. Some ideas for the interior and furniture are light color wall and floor, sliding wall, shelving cabinets, build in cabinet, locker for bags, standing table, flippable table and stackable chair. Ideas for the object design are minimalist decoration, small plates, two-in-one cutlery and lift for food.

I also write some rules for the canteen such as limit the eating time, give discount when non-peak hour, no studying or chilling inside the canteen and no bringing big stuffs. Ideas for pricing and paying system are using barcode, tap card payment, pre-order meal, weekly plan meal and coupon system.

There are many other random ideas which really help me to expand my mind in finding the solutions for the problem.

Online Survey

The purpose of online survey is to know people's thoughts, opinions and feelings. I did an online survey from survey monkey, with 9 questions and 100 responders. In my case, I want to find out about average canteen condition in Singapore, problems that usually happen in canteen and how important canteen is to them. These are the list of questions:

  1. What is your age?

•      15 – 20

•      21 – 30

•      31- 40

•      41 – 50

2. What is your job?

•      Student

•      Teacher

•      Employee

•      Others

3. How important is canteen to you?

•      1

•      2

•      3

•      4

•      5

4. Which canteen do you usually eat at?

•      NAFA Campus I

•      Near working place

•      Near house

•      Others

5. How would you rate the canteen environment?

•      Excellent

•      Very good

•      Good

•      Fair

•      Poor

•      Very poor

6. Is the canteen too small?

•      Yes

•      No

7. According to your experience, what problems usually happen in canteen?

•      No seats

•      Long queue

•      Dirty and bad smell

•      Spilled food or drink on the floor

•      Wrong amount of change

•      Others

8. What time do you usually visit canteen to eat? 
•      Before 9

•      9

•      10

•      11

•      12

•      13

•      14

•      15

•      16

•      17

•      18

•      19

•      20

•      After 20

 

9. What things do you want to change about the canteen?

The results are in the form of table and graphic, then I did an analysis and came out with this result:

Most of our responders are 15 – 20 years old students in Singapore which are the consumer in canteens. According to survey, canteen is important to most responders.

79 responders assume that the canteen they usually visit is too small.  However half of the responders give good rating to the canteen, 6 responders give very good rating, 4 responders give excellent rating, 13 responders give poor rating, 1 responder gives very poor rating and the rest are fair. According to the result, however most responders assume that canteen is too small, but only a few of them give poor rating to the canteen. It means, small space is not the main criteria to rate a canteen.

The most crowded time for canteen is at 12.00 until 13.00, 47 responders usually visit canteen at 12.00 and 37 responders at 13.00. There are many problems happen in canteen, no seats is the problem that happen to most responders (61 responders). 47 responders complain about long queues, 23 responders complain about bad smell and dirty place, 22 responders complain about spilled food or drink on the floor and the rest complain about the food.

Besides the problem for the food, many responders wish to have a bigger canteen, with more seats and better layout. They want the canteen to be more spacious, comfortable clean and fresh.

What is Interview?

Interview is a conversation between two or more people where questions are asked by the interviewer and answered by interviewee.

What kind of info you collect?

I collect fact, statement and opinions from various interviewee which have different point of view, such as gender, job, age and also social status.

How do you present this info in your report?

First, I write list of questions and the result of the interview in sentence. It is also important to include interviewee's profil, such as name, age, gender and job.

How do you analyse this info?

I have to compare the answer of interviewees with other research that I have done. If the data match, the interview result can support other researches. If does not match, I have to do more research, make correction and analyses why it does not match.

Case Study 3: Seri Pristana School

Seri Pristana School in Sungai Buloh, Selangor, Malaysia had a too small canteen. The canteen could only seat 500 to 600 people, while the school has 1300 students. Because of the problem, many students gad to eat in the changing room.

The school also applied for an allocation from the ministry to extend the cafeteria which was too small to accommodate all its students. Luckily, the Ministry had taken an immediate action on the case and would be conduction spot checks on other schools. An Education and Higher Learning Deputy Minister also made a personal contribution of RM 10.000 for the renovation. The renovation is complete now, the canteen can seat all of the students and teachers.

This problem is solved quickly and smoothly because of the cooperation from everybody. The school headmaster and the Ministry assumed that to have an ideal canteen is very important and took this problem seriously. To solve every cases, it is important that everybody concerned about it and willing to cooperate to solve the problem.

 Students are eating at changing room.

Source: Asia News Network. School canteen controversy resolved, says Deputy Minister. Created 24 Jul. 2013. Accessed 26 April. 2014. <http://www.edvantage.com.sg/content/school-canteen-controversy-resolved-says-deputy-minister>

Case Study 2: Laleham Gap Primary School

Laleham Gap Primary School is the primary section of Kent’s specialist provision for high functioning pupils aged 4-16 with Autistic Spectrum Disorder and, or Speech and Language disorders. This school applied for a Canteen Rescue grant because their canteen is small and awkwardly proportioned.

Their dining room is small and there is not enough space for everyone. They have to have some tables outside the dining room in the hallway. And the extra tables were on carpet, which is not hygienic, and it meant the children who sat there were unintentionally excluded from the dining room. The Canteen Rescue grant has enabled them to have all the children eating together and still cater for their individual needs.

They have extended the canteen by transforming the room next door, which was an unused porch. There is still one table in the hallway, but the three areas flow together and they have got new, hygienic flooring that goes through the whole space. They also changed the room colors to blue and lilac to create the whole peace and quiet atmosphere.

 Laleham Gap Primary School canteen after renovation

Source: Children's Food Trust. Laleham Gap Primary School's Canteen Rescue story. Created 2014. Accessed 26 April. 2014. <http://www.childrensfoodtrust.org.uk/case-studies/laleham-gap>

Case Study 1: Orange Grove Public School

Orange Grove Public School in Sydney, Australia has a really small canteen. Because of that, 188 students had to walk to the nearby Leichhardt Municipal Hall or use neighbouring schools' facilities. The school was asked to expand the canteen but they cannot make it because of the expensive cost and the limited budget, whereas the school actually has the space.

In New South Wales, 19 of the school brick tuckshops measuring 3m x 8m will cost between $550,000 and $600,000 each. That size is too small to fit a stove or even a pie-warmer. They only can put the oven and other stuffs on the bench, because there is no room. The secretary of the school's Parents & Citizens Association, Louise Appel, said that the canteen is like a cubby house, there is no space for anything.

In this case, the problem is on the cost, so the only solution is to make a 'cheap' canteen. Cheap means choose cheaper material, it is not necessary to be brick. Reducing the size of the tuckshop is not correct, what should be changed is the design, not the size. For example, it is not necessary to have brick wall to separate each tuckshop, we can change it with board or other cheaper materials. For the tuckshop itself, just use several tables to serve the food, do not need to build brick stall. For the eating area, standing table is a good choice to minimize the cost.

Standing table

Table with ready food

Source: Bita, Natasha. $550,000 Canteen Too Small for A Pie Warmer. Created 17 May. 2010. Accessed 20 Mar. 2014. <http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/canteen-too-small-for-a-pie-warmer/story-e6frg6n6-1225867479199>

Research Methodology

There are several method in doing research, there are case study, survey, interview and observation. Each method collects different kinds of info, different ways to present and analyze the info.
But there is the same purpose form all kinds of research method, those research are to support each other, correct each other, until in the end I can collect the most accurate data.

In one of class activities, each group discussed about one research methodology. We discussed about what kind info that we collect from the research, how to present the info in our report and also how we analyze the info.

Then we share our discussion to the whole class. These are pictures of discussion paper from other groups.

Canteen is forgotten

Canteen as a place where people enjoy their meal and socialize should be a comfortable place. People can recharge their energy there before they start or continue their activities. But sadly, canteen is usually not a priority in space managing of a building, despite the importance of it. There are too many divisions of space in an area until canteen is mostly forgotten and only has the left-over space of the area.  

Therefore, in the process of building construction, good management is important in, such as:

•    Minimizing unnecessary construction and maintenance costs. 
•    Minimizing energy and other operating costs that may result
     from heating and cooling poorly used space. 
•    Ensuring an equitable distribution of available resources to all
     units and activities at an installation.

Through good management, funding for facilities can be minimized and the money saved can be applied to other needs. Space management is an important part of facilities management. It is a process of projecting space requirements, identifying deficiencies, and allocating available space to users in an equitable way, monitoring use, assisting users with space usage problems, and resolving space problems. Like facilities management, space management not only is concerned with the amounts of space, but must address the quality of space as well. 

 Building construction