Process Journal

Morgan Ripley

Project Type

A Bar.................................................................

Brief Version One............................................

Brief Version Two.............................................

The Site

Potential Sites...................................................

Kibble Palace...................................................

New Site...........................................................

Site Context......................................................

Figuring out the Measurements.......................

Radar of the Site...............................................

Oran Mor Case Study.....................................

The Benefits of the Research............................

A Bar Quiz

Quiz Results......................................................

How the Quiz helped......................................

The Staff Front of House VS. Back of House.................

My Experience................................................

Compairing the Work Places..........................

Target Audience and Branding

Target Audience .............................................

Branding Posters.............................................

The Floor Plans

The Process of the Floor Plans.........................

Final Floor plan.........................................

Analysing

Project Type

Deciding on a project type is the first thing to do when making the final project.

A Bar

The main concept for my project is to create a bar, somewhere in Glasgow. I wanted to focus my designon a version of hospitality as this is the field of Interior Design I want to go into after university. As I have worked in bars and restaurants for the majority of my adult life, I wanted to focus on this as there is a wide variety of different styles and types of bars. I feel like it will be really interersting to design one from my own perspective.

Draft Concept and Brief Pt.

Introduction

My project for final year is to design an underground bar, located in the Botanic Garden Railway Station, right at the Ventilation. I wanted to create a bar as it currently the field of work that I am in and from this I know that most bars are design with the customer in mind rather than the worker. I want to design a space that works well not only for the customer but the staff too.

Function

For the space, I want a quirky bar with a botanical theme to fit with the rest of the garden. It needs to be a multi-functional space to find the different users throughout the day, a café for daytime use and a bar for evening. I also want to add a small section for a kitchen to serve light bites or small plates for people to enjoy whilst at the bar. As the location is pretty much an empty space, it has given me the freedom to create the design that I feel will work best. Goals

My goals for this year are to create an inventive yet practical space for all who use it. I want to create a cool design for the bar area and a useful working area for the back of house. What I need for a successful bar are:

- Bar area

- Multiple types of seating areas

- Toilets (male, female and disabled)

- Stairs

- Lift

- Entrance area.

Back of House

- Staff room

- Office

- Storage

- Keg room

- Kitchen

- Staff toilets

If my design creates a space that is comfortable for the staff and will create a good environment for the customers

Users

My users will be two different types of people depending on what time of day it is. During the day time, my audience are the people around the garden already and possible people looking for a new café/ bar in the area. The usual audience during the day (at least for when I have been there is usually older people or families, people who have the day off etc.) on the evening and night my idea is to cater more towards younger people and students as that is who is frequenting bars the most. You can change a venue from day to night fairly well by changing lighting as it can really set the mood for the space in different ways. Approach to research here you should expand on your research approach. Provide an overview of how you intend to collect data, and how it might inform your creative process. Examples of this are Interviews, questionnaires, secondary research, case studies. My main place of research is on dezeen, looking at different styles of bars and seeing which aspects could work in my design. I also intend to often go to the sight and see the types of people around at different times of day to see what my audience will be. I can then alter my design to fit with the audience that is there. I also intend to see what different types of bars are around the area and which ones work the best, I can then alter my design to have a design that will entice people to come visit a new location. Building choice¬¬

My choice in building is based on the location that surrounded it, the West end really interested me and I wanted to explore options within that. I looked into the botanic gardens and initially had the Kibble Palace in mind, after some more research and site visits I realised it wouldn’t work for what I had intended. I change my plan to the botanic railway as it was still in this excellent location but I had much more to work with and less constraints on my own design.

Brief Version Two

Project Type: Underground bar/ restaurant.

Location: Botanic Railway Platforms, Glasgow Botanic Garden. Aims:

- To create a fully furnished bar located in the underground botanic railway platforms.

- Develop on a specific aspect (lighting) for the 20-credit element.

- Have a physical and digital model with specific views for each.

- Have developed section drawings.

Overview

The botanic gardens railway station and platforms have been abandoned since the 70s. During this project the aim is to create a bar that is a practical space, that will elevate the gardens as well as being its own space. It has to be functional during both the day and night, offering services to the people visiting the gar-

Front of House Needs

- Bar

- Seating (with variation)

- Toilets

- Lifts

- Stairs

- Storage

- Food area

- Glass wash area

Back of House Needs:

- Staff room

- Office

- Keg Room

- Storage Room

- Staff Toilet

- Kitchen (maybe)

20-Credit Element

The 20-credit element for this project is to focus on lighting. There should be surveys to see what lighting is best for the mood you are trying to set, both for the day and night. Different styles of lighting should also be used (differing heights, sizes etc.). There should be an in-depth look into how different types of lighting are used for different functions, e.g. it is different in a shop to a restaurant.

Expected Outcomes:

- A physical and digital model

- Technical drawings

- 20 credit detail

- Project journal

- Portfolio

- Process Journal

- Visuals

o Floorplans

o 1:50 scale section

o Elevations

o Section drawings

The Site

Finding the right site is a crucial step in the design process. Looking into the site and seeing why it will work for my project will help in the overall.

Potential Sites

35 Church Street, Partick, G11 5JT

3-storey, rectangular-plan Italianate former Board School on gushet site bounded by Church Street, Torness Street and Byres Road. Long, rectangular-plan 2-storey swimming pool and gymnasium block to S of site with broad, pulvinated eaves course and continuous raised rooflight; attached 2-storey janitor’s house, all Bruce and Hay, 1904.

Botanic Gardens, Glasgow G12 0UE

24 Vinicombe St, West End, Glasgow G12 8BE

The Botanic Gardens Garage is a two-story, five-bay Category A-listed building in the West End of Glasgow, Scotland. It is located on Vinicombe Street, a one-minute-walk from the Glasgow Botanic Gardens. It is the oldest surviving purpose-built motor garage in Glasgow. The building is no longer used as a garage, and instead houses restaurants and a gym.

David V. Wyllie was the architect and it was built between 1906 and 1912. In the 1920s the pro-prietor was Alexander Kennedy.

The Kibble Palace is a 19th-century wrought iron-framed glasshouse, covering 2137 m. Originally designed for John Kibble by architects James Boucher and James Cousland for his home at Coulport on Loch Long in the 1860s, the components were cast by Walter Macfar-lane at his Saracen Foundry in Possilpark. Eventually brought up the River Clyde by barge to the Botanic Gardens, it was fully erected at its current location in 1873 by Boyd of Paisley. The building structure is of curved wrought iron and glass supported by cast-iron beams resting on ornate columns, surmounted on masonry foundations.

Kibble Palace- A Deeper Look

The Kibble Palace is loacted in the West End, specifically in the Botanic Garden. This is a great place for a bar as the West End has a high vol-ume of different types of people. As there are so many different types of people, it is easier to group them together as the different target audi-ences. During the day there is a different audience than in the evening. To make a successful bar in this area, it is a good idea to look into these different people and see how to cater to these audiences.

The Botanic Garden- After visiting the site, the audience during the day is usually families with young children, older people and students. It would be interesting to make a space that would have this versitility to work for these people.

The West End scene- There are quite a few bars in the West End, and after visiting a few of them in an evening, it was mostly filled with younger people, most likely students. There were also a lot of couples and people having after work drinks. I think the target would be a mix of these cata-gories.

Will This Site Work?

After doing a site visit, I’m not sire that the Kibble Palace wil actually work for my final site. Yes, the location is great, but the sturcture itself might not be the best for what I am trying to achieve.

The issues with the site:

- Iconic building, people would not be open to the change.

- Remove the plants

- The plants are what make the place what it is.

- Keep the plants

- Limits the design. It’s hard to decide what to do with the space. To work around the space would be limiting my design abilities and im not sure that this would be ideal for a final year project. To do this site would not work for the project in mind.

Church Street School Swimming Pool (Former) and Janitor’s House

Botanic Gardens Garage

Kibble Palace, Botanic Garden

New Site

Botanic Gardens Railway Station

My chosen site is the Botanic Railway Station Platforms. This site was opened in 1896 and closed during the war time and then reopened again in 1919. The railway platforms weren’t popular with locals as the interior was soot-stained as the main trains were steam. After a steady decline in passengers, the railway line closed in 1939. After this the building was mainly left abandoned. The platforms have remained un-used since then, with only the railway station main building being used for other purposes. Even though the area was barricaded, there is lots of graffiti plastered across the walls. It is a derelict building that has had no purpose since 1939.

Location

This is only a short walk from Kibble Palace, so still in a great location of the West End. It’s on a different side of the Botanic Gardens than Kibble Palace, However it is still pretty close to the entrance and easy to get to for all.

(C) Figuring out the measurements

It was very difficult to find the measurements for this site. As the space has been empty since the fire in the 70s, and all other planning permissions have been denied, it wasn’t easy to find any accurate measurements for the space. I got a vague measurement from the Glasgow Cousil website of how long/ wide the space would be. After doing further research on the space, I came across a website from a man that had visited the site and then made a 3D model (B) of it. This made it easier to put into perspective the size of the space. After this I looked into previous projects that had used the space and came across one that had a drawing of the shape of the building (C) , but it wasnt to scale. After all of this research, I was able to scale the site, and create this drawing (A) of it.

Radar of the Site

(A)

(B)

What is in this Space?

There is a small stand-alone stand that sells co ee and cakes. It’s called Lily and Rose at the Botanics. Why I think that this wont be a con ict for customers is due to the fact that this is a stall, with no seats and quite high pricing. As there is no other place for people to go, they can make the prices anything they want and people don’t really have any other choice.

This is the location of my chosen site. It’s also the Botanic Gardens. Around the Botanic Gardens there is a lot of interesting places that will help me decide what to do within my project. The main aspects of what was looking at was the parts of the Garden that could impact my design. took photos of all of these areas.

What is in this Space?

The Oran Mor is an incredibly popular bar just outside of the Botanic Gardens. Whats most interesting with the bar is that it has a very wide spread di erence with its audience. There is both older people and students in the venue at any given day. They also sell food which has its own seperate area.

This is the main cafe in the Botanics Garden. wanted to go in and see the di erent sections of the cafe itself. When I went to actually go into the cafe to see it, there was a notice on the sign saying that the cafe was closed for the Winter. This means that there is an opening in the market for a year long cafe/ bar in the Gardens.

Vinicombe Street is a really interesting street just o of the Botanic Garden with 2 really cool bars and an interesting cafe. As this is just o of the Botanic Garden, I believe that it is really helpful to have other cool bars near by to help people when doing the ound, to go from location to location with similar vibes. My hope is to create a bar that would seamlessly work with these other bars.

What is in this Space?

What is in this Space?

There are lots of Cafes and places with small bites in this area. I don’t think that this will be a massive e ect on buisness in the Botanics Gardens as 1. Most of these cafes are realitivly busy, as on byres road is an incredibly busy street and people want di eret experiences. 2. People visiting the Botanics Garden wont necessarily want to carry a co ee all the way from Byres road/ their co ee could get cold by that time.

In this space, the most notable place is the Hillhead Subway Station. The reason that this is so important is because not only does it bring a lot of people into the area, so its easy for a lot of people to access but also it can make the my site a part of the subcrawl. The bar is only a 6 minute walk from the station, so it could be ideal for this.

Oran Mor Casestudy

The Oran Mor is an excellent example of how well pubs/ bars/ restaurants work in the West End of Glasgow, specifically next to the Botanic Gardens. I have personally been to and visited the Oran Mor a handful of times, both at night and druing the day. So I know that at different times and differ-ent days of the week the level of buisness is always got quite a few people there at all times. It’s a very interesting location as it was formally the Kelvinside Parish Church, and still holds different elements of the Church. Some of these features include stain-glass windows and the raw stone. It’s a great jux-taposition to have something like a bar held within the outward look of a church.

My visit that I have Photographed to the right, show the interior elements of the Oran Mor. The bar being in the centre of the space is very inspritation-al to me as it is not something i have seen a lot and seems to be a great way to slip up the space.

Google often puts this business scale on popular restau-rants to give people an idea of when the place is busy, obviously this isnt a perfect representation as buisness can change day to day. However it is a pretty good indicator for what is going on day to day. For instance, it is pretty common knowledge that the busy days will be a friday and saturday and the charts acknowledge that. On my vis-it, on the 24th Jan, it was a Wednesday, I went round and counted a total of 22 people (not including the workers) in at around 2pm. That evening my flatmate went to the Oran Mor and estimated around 210 people as there was a put quiz on and there was people both enjoying the pub nor-mally and people doing the quiz.

This research helped with my design process. By looking at the spaces around my site and going into depth with some of them, it made me realise what works in this part of Glasgow. By doing this I can cater to the audience that I seen whilst visiting. All of these things combined influenced my cohoices when going further into the design.

A Bar Quiz

I created a quiz, to see what people think about when it comes to bars. To see the difference in how people see bars at different times of day, if they eat there ect.

The results of the quiz

What are the main differences you have noticed?

- Quiet, less staff, staff are normally chattier because they have time to speak

- Quieter/different crowd

- Less people, music is not as loud, depending on venue, more focus on food over drinks, lighting, number of staff, certain areas closed off

- different vibes innit

- Music plays in the evening, daytime has more of a chill atmosphere more set for meals then at night becomes more of a drinking atmosphere

- Noise levels, ages

What differences would you like to see in bars at these different times?

- More people so that businesses can boom

- Cosy at night/ not dark during the day

- Different music, lighting, change in the drinks/cocktails on offer, the food on offer

- pancakes x

- live music

- lighting, atmosphere

This quiz helped me decide on key elements of my design. People expressed the want for different food options, so the need for a kitchen was there. People also spoke about wanting brunch options, which helped me decide on having a daytime use for the design. This quiz also spoke about how the biggest change people see between the day and night time was a change in the lighting, so this helped me pick my 20 credit.

The Staff

A big part of my proect is to focus on the staff and their needs. After working in various hospitality jobs, it’s clear to see that the staff isn’t always thought about in the design process. I want to highlight them and make their job as easy as possible in relation to the space I design.

Front of House Back of House

FOH stands for “front of house.” In a restaurant, the front of house is the customer-facing part of the operation. This in-cludes the dining room, bar, and other areas where customers interact with staff. Front of house staff is responsible for all of the activities that take place in the dining room and beyond.

Front of House areas: - Entrance points

Toilets

Bar

Seating Areas

Outdoor Seating Areas

The back of the house, also known as the BOH, encompasses all the behind-the-scenes areas that customers will not see. This acts as the central command center in a restaurant be-cause it’s where the food is prepared, cooked, and plated be-fore making its way to the customer’s table. All back-of-house staff should wear clean uniforms and aprons while on the job. The back of house also serves as a place for employees and managers to do administrative work.

Back of House areas:

Kitchen

Staff Room

Office

Storage Rooms

Considerations for Both sections

- What will the movement from FOH to BOH be?

- Will the kithen be visible to customers?

- Will the theme from the main FOH section flow to Boh or will there be a completely differ-ent vibe?

- How big of a focus will BOH be in the de-sign?

- What is more important?

I have worked in bars and restaurants for the better part of three years and that is why the staff experience is so important to me. In most of the places that I have worked, it seemed as if the BOH and staff areas were an after thought. Yes the customer facing areas will always be the priority when designing, as these are the areas that bring in the money for the buisness. I also think that the staff that will be in the building the most out of everyone, so they need to be considered durning the design process.

WonderBar - First Hospitality Job

My first hospitality job was at the WonderBar in Newcastle. This is a sports themed bar, hosting the pre-game match party on the home games. This job has a very interesting view of FOH vs. BOH. The bar is split up on two floors, the bottom floor being for everyday and the top floor only being open during events or busy saturdays. The BOH is also split onto these two floors. The kitchen was open to the rest of the bar with a large food window, which has a large view into the kitchen. Other than the keg room the rest of BOH was upstairs. The actual walkway from the bottom floor to the top for the straff was made of metal and had lots of splits where the floor stuck up and often caused me to trip. The office was on the smaller side and had a couple of desks. The biggest complaint from managers was that it was extremely hot all of the time. The staff room was a glorified storage space. No bigger than 3m x 3m and filled with shelves with the cleaning products, benches no longer being used or broken furniture. There was only 1 stool for staff to sit, which blocks the door from being closed. The icewell for the staff to be able to get ice was on the upper floor, so to get ice for the bottom floor you had to walk up the stairs, fill the bucket and then walk down a narrow set of stairs carry it. I once fell down the stairs with the ice and it went all down the stairs on a busy Saturday night. There is no disabled access for the staff.

Hard Rock Cafe - Newcastle

Another Hospitality Job that I have had was at The Hard Rock Cafe in New-castle. As this is a chain restaurant, I’m pretty sure that there are a few more regulations in place for the staff areas. This was one of the best BOH places that I have seen in hospitality. The BOH areas of this restaurant are a bit different to WonderBar as it is primarily a restaurant rather than a bar, there-fore the kitchen area will be bigger. However, there are a lot of designated spaces for each different element of the kitchen that I have not seen before. There is the main kitchen, where the food is made for the customer, which is visible to the rest of the restaurant, behind that is the KP area, specifically the dishwasher which is a bigger space than usual for a dishwasher. There is stor-age for all of the kitchen appliences, and a prep kitchen, so all of the veg and specific sauces are made daily for service and this kitchen is almost as big as the other kitchen. This is all on the bottom floor, so it is all connected and easy to move through.

The FOH staff area is up a floor but it doesn’t have any disabled access. This area is a lot smaller than the kitchen area (which is expected), there are two staff toilets, and a small locker room, which connects to a loft storage room. Then there is a second office (I was never allowed in there so I do not know the size of it) and another ‘staff room’ that is around 3m x 5m, which has a small table and plastic chair a shelf for staff belongings and another set of two lockers. Connected to this room is a smaller room with a curtain so that the staff can get changed. These areas are used by all staff ( Kitchen, Server, Retail and Hosts) so is usually quite busy. Although this BOH is miles better than WonderBar, there is still quite a bit that could be changed to make the staff experience better.

A deeper look into my most recent Job.

My most recent job in Glasgow was the best view that I can think of into the difference between Front of House and Back of House. I will show photos of the different sections, however i could not get all of the photos I wanted to as I was on shift so had to focus on work.

Front of House

The front of House elements of the pub are very well designed. There are multiple types of seating, different styles and heights which can change the experience of the customer. There is a long bar so it’s easy to get served and lots of options for 2, 4 and 6 people to sit. It’s quite an open space and doesnt seem overcrowded. The theme of the materials works together quite well and moves throughout the space. Some of the decor is a little confusing but overall makes sense for a bar. There are lots of different styles of light which created a nice atmosphere.

Back Of House

This is the ‘Staff Cloakroom’. It is just a storage room that got converted into the place where the staff keep their coats and bags. There is no designated staff room anymore as the old staff room was changed to a storage place for old broken storage. It is a lockable cupboard so it is safe for our stuff.

One of the basement corridors. This is one of many corridors in the basement, which is the main part of BOH, they all look like this. The ceilings are quite low so you have to watch your head on the pipes and it looks quite bad/ dangerous. the floor is just raw concrete but this specific corridor always appears wet. The walls all look quite dirty and marked with holes and scraps all over them.

The bar. This is one of the better bars that I have worked on. There is lots of fridge space and space to work. The only issues with this bar is that it is quite narrow, so if there is more than one of us on the bar, we will often bump into eachother and get blocked. The dishwasher is down at the bottom of the bar so it is out of the way when people are on the bar, but when the glasses pile up it looks very messy for customers walking into the bar.

More ‘storage’ this is the area between the kegs, the icewell, the soda syrip and the dry stock. This area is kind of a dumping ground for the spare stuff that doesnt have a place, theres a clear walkway to get through but thats probably the only positive for this place. The floor is full of gaps and potholes and it’s quite an overwhelming space. The dry store is very neat.

Comparing the workplaces.

Lots of storage space.

Privacy - hand writ ten on the doors. Quite bold but also looks messy

Uses staff areas as furniture storage

Stainless steel food running area. Not visually appealing

Doors blend in with walls so that it is harder for customer to accidentally come through them.

The Kitchen isn’t visible at all.

Concrete and plain walls in all BOH areas -has not been designed at all.

Current

Has a lockable place for staf to put their belongings

Customers facing par ts are the most impor tant element. Has some form of a staff

Gratitude walllets the staff thank eachother Helps with staf f moral.

Notice boards with infostaf f otas and plans for the week. Helps the staff in all sections.

Food running area is heavily designed marble and wood.

Open space, the staf f area isn’ cramped in.

Target Audience and Branding

The people are important to think of when designing. Another important element is how you appeal to those people.

Target Audience

Friencs wanting a fun night out, to go to a place thathas dif ferent options. The choice of live music is great for them. A place that has a range of drink options, like cocktails, pints and co fees so that something can work for all of hem!

A Couple out on an evening date. Wanting to spend the night in a new bar

A family on a day out at he botanical Gardens, wanting a stop for cof fee and a lunch snack. Staying close to he Botanics was key for them.

Collegues wanting a spot to discuss work over a drink. Dif ferent options are good for hem, hey want he choice bet ween cof fee or a pint.

By considering the target audience it helps me visualise who I am designing to. By having this wide range from all times of day, it allows me to focus on this key difference. It means that when i am thinking of the design I am targeting the two different types of audiences, so I am having to make things that work for both of them. It needs to be versitile but also show this key difference.

Daytime/ Nightime Posters (Branding)

The Floorplans

Playing around with possible floorplans will help decifer what changes I want to make for the design.

Creating the Base Shape

The platform/ train track areas, while still being practical as a bar.

This represents the different ways that i wanted to test out different floorplans. I was playing around with the different booths, actual bar area, toilets placing ect. I wanted o figure out the different ways I could utilise the platform/ train track areas, while still being practical as a bar.

Utilising the Train Tracks Bringing In the Trains

I knew that utilising the train tracks was the best option for this space, I chose the site as it was an interesting layout. So by covering it would be an easy way out of avoiding the slight height difference in the middle. My solution was to make different elements that fully utilise the lower level.

The best way to utilise the tracks would be to place actual train carts in the space.

Final Floor Plan

Material Boards

A key to showing what each room will look like.

Staff Room Material Board

Stair and Lift Material Board

Kitchen Material Board

Booth Material Board

Bathroom Material Board

Making the material boards look like they’re in the space. It was important to me to make the material boards look like they could be in the space and contextualize them. It makes more sense as a descriptive piece if the materials are in context with the space. The materials should be proportionate.

Renders

Renders are an important part of bringing your project to life. They are necessary in representing your project fully.

Process of the Train Carts

I wanted to show the full train carts, with different elements to show I wanted the train, the glass platform and elements of the conversation pits to be visual.

I wanted to make the render feel a little more realistic. For this I had to add the walls and ceiling as well as the other elements of the design like the stairs and extra chairs. This made the design look like it was in an actual building rather than floating in the the midde of no where.

To finish the rendering process I wanted to add people to the design.

Defining the Booths

Once agin I created the render to show the materiality of the space as this was my main focus at the time. I wanted to represent this area alone.

For this render I thought it was important to add lighting as this corner doesn’t get much natural light. I wanted to zoom in on the section as well as the first rendering made the elements less easy to see.

To finish the render I added people to show what the space could be like and then specific lighting to show the height of the space.

Analysing the Stairs

Trying to show the stiars was quite a challenge for me, as I didnt know the best way of doing it. The first render shows the view without the walls, so that you can fully see the full staircase. Whereas the second render shows the stairs intergrated within the full site. I think the second shows the stairs best as it gives the view of what they will like like within the full site.

The side elevation was also iportant as I wanted to show how the stairs flow down and how they look in this way. For the first one I left out the walls so that the stairs would be fully visible.For the second I added lighting and the interal walls, as well as the back wall so there was something to show the depth of the space. The lighting elevates the render and makes it seem like a real space.

Defining of the male toilets

Playing around with the colour of lighting was making the different renders show different things. I think the best lighting is the first one as it makes the space feel warmer and compliments the colours. The second does show the space very well but it’s very bright and looks sterile, so I don’t think its the best optiom for my design.

After dealing with the lighting choice it was important to add people to the space, to make it feel more realistic. Without the people it feels like a big empty room, but after adding them it shows that the empty space was necessary as people need to move around the space. By having it as a bigger toilet it feels less cramped, which is usual for normal male toilets.