Design Brief 4

Presenting our project to our classmates and listening to their opinions and contributions made us think of a few things we hadn’t taken into consideration.
First of all, we realised that this Coffee Shop would be perfect not only for students but also for parents. A lot of them stay after school chatting with teachers or with other parents while their children play, and we are sure they would enjoy a comfortable place like this one.
Besides, it would also be used during special events such as “Calle Peatonal” or “April Fool’s Day”.
Another point that we discussed was creating “Coffee Shop Accounts” for students, as we figure parents may not want their children to bring any money to school (as they could lose it, or someone could steal it from them). These accounts work pretty well in other schools. Each student would have one, and they would be filled by parents with as much money as they want their kids to spend. The school would assign a number to each account, and each student would have to memorise it to be able to order. This method would prevent children from handling money and would also speed up the queues.
Our classmates asked us about what type of food would be on sale. We would like it to be kind of healthy and varied. It could include juice, fruit, sandwiches and salads, and not many snacks or cans of soda.
Another point we talked about was service. We think that two people to take care of clients would be enough and the only problem with this is that the school would have to hire them. Anyway, taking into consideration that this Coffee Shop would be a source of income for the school, the expenses wouldn’t be as high.
Finally, some of our classmates suggested that bachillerato students should have preferences (as our recess are shorter) and should be able to jump the queues if they are too long. Everyone seemed to agree, so it’s something that the school could bare in mind.

Design Brief 3

Design Brief 3:

When started to design the coffee shop, with real sizes, we came to the conclusion that there was not a lot of space. This was because the area was not very big and because the tree occupies to much space in both floors. Also, to save the tree was very complicate because in the second floor, there there would have to be a great circle in the center, that not only would be difficult to construct, but it would be inconfortable and dangerous. So, removing the tree was necessary, but we would put a smaller one in the outdoors space, and some other plants.
Except for that detail, everything we had in our mind was possible. In the first floor, not a lot of tables could be stablished because we had to think in the queues,  but in the second floor there was enough space for a lot of tables.

Design Brief 2

After studying our project in depth we’ve realised we might need to make a few adjustments to our plan, although our initial design brief was quite correct.

We came up with a few new ideas such as accommodating an outdoors terrace during the summer. We could place some tables and chairs outside the building in a shaded and long area available just next to the Coffee Shop building.
When we studied the place, we also had the idea that a second floor would be very beneficial, not only because it would increment the area, but also because it would be connected with the eating room and also with the toilets, that are on the side.

We also thought of building the Coffee Shop with recyclable materials such as bamboo (because it replenishes very quickly), recycled carpet tiles, recycled rubber and recycled plastic or cork. Here’s a webpage with a lot of useful information about green building materials.

Regarding space, we found out we had enough space available as we expected.  From 10 to 15 tables should fit perfectly.

Introduction & Design Brief

Our names are Guillermo Domínguez, Almudena Miláns del Bosch, Pablo Heredia and Clara Heredia. We are students from Colegio Base who have decided to design a Coffee Shop for our school, so that everyone can enjoy it. We think it would be great if our project went on and we have created this blog to post all our proposals and suggestions. We hope they will come in handy and will be taken into consideration.

Description: This design brief is basically about the main characteristics of the coffee shop, and the reasons we had to choose it as a project. Our coffee shop will be perfect for all ages, supportive with a NGO and a great improvement for the school.

Context: We want to build the Coffee Shop  in a square area located between the secretary's office and primary's porch.  We use to call this area "The Tilo's garden".

Future users: The coffee shop will be opened to all the students that want to buy food or drinks in their free time, and also teachers and all the people that work in the school.

Objectives: We want to improve the quality of the school by making people feel more comfortable and to have what they want. By the other hand, we think it would be a great idea to dedicate part of the deposits to the NGO ‘Save the Children’.

Challenges: We want students, teachers, secretary employees and maintenance personnel to be able to buy food in their free time and also rest in an indoors place.

Design results: We want to create a small place where people can relax and interact with each other. We picture it as a cosy, nice area, dedicated to people from all ages who want to enjoy a cup of coffee or just have a pleasant conversation during their free time. Our final design of the coffee shop will try to represent this whole concept.

Team roles: Pablo and Almu will be in charge of the prototype designs and the plans, Guillermo will be in charge of the blog and the technological aspects of the project and Clara will be in charge of the  document drafting, wording and phrasing. Coming up with new ideas and discussing the contents of the project will be a group job.