Redesign the canteen 
 
In the CityU, many people who are teachers, students and other strangers will come to our canteen to have a meal for breakfast, lunch and so on. Especially, in lunch time, the canteen needs to serve up to 2000 people, the problems which are furniture's problem and lighting's problem are even worse. Moreover, the CityU's canteen has some problems to make people have a meal unenjoyable such that we need to focus on those problems which are furniture's problem and lighting's problem and will be mainly discussed in this report. Also, we will provide some solution for the CityU's canteen as a reference. 
 

One important problem that is contributing to the canteen design is the furniture. In relation to the canteen design, the choice of furniture including tables and chairs has to be made with great care. And then, the suitable furniture have to create a required atmosphere. I don't understand the logic in this argument. On the contrary, the CityU’s canteen cannot satisfy this requirement. It is because the chairs which create difficulties for people to take a seat are quite big, the chair-backs make a barrier for people to take a seat as well, and the tables are quite long, so people also have difficulties in taking a seat. Moreover, the chairs are not comfortable for people have a meal because of the poor chair design. As a result, The problems of the furniture i have mentioned did not create a comfortable atmosphere for people to enjoy a meal. Consequently, action must be taken to improve this situation so as to make the canteen have better environment for people to enjoy their meal.  

 

In order to redesign the furniture of the CityU's canteen and have a better environment for people to have a meal, we should focus on two areas which are the types of chair we used and the types of table we used. For the chair, we suggest that the canteen should use the chairs which have no chair-back. Therefore, people will have no difficulties to take seats. For example, we can use folding chairs to replace the initial chairs that the canteen has already used. If we use a folding chair, there will be extra space to be provided for people to take a seat easily. For the table, in fact, it seems that the tables of the CityU's canteen are quite long and uneven. As a result, people may find that when they have a meal, the table can move. We recommend that the canteen should use a fixed table instead of the initial table and the table should be well-distributed. Hence, if the canteen uses my suggestion, the change of furniture will create required atmospheres which are comfortable and enjoyable for a meal.
 

Next, another problem is that the lamps which cause glare problem create the light too bright compared with the general brightness of the surroundings. In regard to the Building Environmental’s Lecture note, Glare is the discomfort or impairment of vision experienced when parts of the visual field are excessively bright in relation to the canteen. Furthermore, There are three kinds of glare which are reflected glare, disability glare and discomfort glare and we will encounter in the canteen and cause visual discomfort without necessarily impairing the ability to see detail. For example, when people sit near the windows and have a meal under the daylight, they may meet the glare which causes visual discomfort to them, especially under clear sky. As a result, glare problem which causes visual discomfort and make people have a meal unenjoyably and even the business will be affected is one of the important problem in the CityU's canteen. Therefore, we need to take some action in order to solve the glare problem to provide better environment for eating and improve the profits possibly.

 

One solution to deal with glare problem is that we should limit the illuminance of daylight. According to the Standard Service Illuminance for Various Activities or Interiors, three hundreds illuminance is suitable for canteen's lighting requirement. Hence, we should control the daylight around three hundreds illuminance. In order to do this, we have two approaches which are windows and lighting. For the windows, the canteen should use the reflective glass instead of the initial glass because the reflective glass can reflect most of the daylight. Therefore, it can reduce the daylight transmission as well as the glare problem. Nevertheless, the canteen can be installed some light-blocked accessories. For instance, we can install some curtains to limit the daylight to transmit to the canteen. For the lighting, we use the method which is called Permanent Supplementary Artificial Lighting of the Interior. It is use of electric lighting to supplement the daylight in the interior parts of the canteen. That means when the daylight provides enough illuminance to the canteen, we can adjust the lighting to keep around 300 illuminance. We can install the electric lighting in such a way that the daylight character of the canteen retainable. If the canteen adapt this method, it will use less energy and thus save money. Consequently, these methods can solve the glare problem and keep the better visual environment to the people to have a meal.   

 

 

To sum up, the two main problems in the CityU's canteen are the design of the furniture and the glare problem. For the furniture design, we should use new types of the furniture that will not create a barrier for people to take a seat. For the glare problem, we should adapt the Permanent Supplementary Artificial Lighting of the Interior and use the reflective window instead of the initial one to reduce illuminance in the canteen. The initial cost for doing these solutions is quite costly, but they are the long-term method to solve those problems properly. In other words, if we adapt the Permanent Supplementary Artificial Lighting of the Interior properly, it will save money in the long-term because it uses less electrical energy. In addition, if the canteen applies those recommendations i mentioned, the new design of the canteen will create a comfortable and enjoyable atmosphere for the customers to have a meal, the even better situation is that the business may increase slightly due to the new design of the canteen. As a result, the related authorities please consider these solution in order to have a better environment. 
 

Reference:

ELC Data File Part 2, BST 11524 Building Environmental Science's Notes: Daylighting and Photometry & Visual Comfort
 
 
Words count:  1082