The scope of design
Not only are there different types of infrastructure, but we must also remember that an infrastructure development requires the design of a whole range of elements including, in relation to a convention centre, for example:
䊉 main buildings and structures – location, scale and materials
䊉 internal fittings and fixtures including catering facilities, retail outlets and toilets 䊉 landscaping around the buildings and structures
䊉 the layout of the site, as a whole 䊉 support services such as car parks 䊉 signing
A holistic approach has to be taken to ensure that the entire final design works for users.
Design issues
When we design anything we are always trying to meet a number of design objectives. Figure 8.3 identifies some of the key design objectives in relation to the physical infrastructure of business travel and tourism. We will look at three of these in detail in this chapter, namely user friendliness, environmental friendliness and multipurpose use. However the others are all also important.
User friendliness
Clearly, everyone agrees that any physical structure should be user friendly. However, first we need to decide who the users will be. As a spokesperson for the Right Solution Limited says:
Economy: · · development costs operating costs Design To produce an aesthetically pleasing building or structure Safety and security Impressing potential investors and users User friendliness and functional efficiency Environmental friendliness Multi purpose use Meeting the demands of planning authorities
Those who do not speak the language of the destination country, who
have a need for special signing, and translation facilities, for example Users with disabilities:
· · · mobility problems hearing difficulties sight impairment Physical Infrastructure
Those arriving with baggage who need luggage storage
facilities
Users who need facilities for presentations such as audiovisual and special
effects equipment
When designing a convention centre one has to consider first and most importantly, who will be using the facilities and for what purpose? The target markets and the likely occupants of the facilities are crucial to their viability and must be considered separately at each stage of the design. In other words, form must follow function, not the other way round, which is too often the case. (The Right Solution Limited, quoted in Rogers, 1998)
There are a number of different groups of users who have special needs, that need to be recognized by designers. Some of these are outlined in Figure 8.4.
We will now use hypothetical examples to illustrate good and bad practice in the design of physical infrastructure.
Figure 8.3 Design objectives
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A hypothetical example of good practice: the Sunnyville Convention Centre
This purpose-built convention centre is located on a formerly derelict site, surrounded by a nicely landscaped area, near to the town centre. A railway station is next door and there is a secure car park adjacent to the centre. The centre is clearly signposted from every direction. The entrance to the auditorium is clearly marked, and is accessed via a ramp with a very low gradient, ideal for those using a wheelchair.
The doors are automatic, ideal for delegates carrying heavy bags. The information centre is right by the entrance, next to the cloakroom, and there is clear signposting to every part of the complex. Symbols are used for the benefits of foreign guests and there are Braille signs for those with sight difficulties.
The building has been designed to allow large numbers of people to pass through quickly and the food and drink outlets have been designed to allow quick throughput.
At the back of the exhibition hall, on a service road, is a large entrance for those bringing equipment for the exhibitions, which support many conferences. Vehicles can even gain access via this entrance, if necessary.
There is a large auditorium with tiered seating which can also be used for concerts and shows. It has many emergency exits in the event of fire alarms and other emergencies.
There are a number of flat-floored spaces which can be effectively subdivided to meet the needs of groups of different sizes, for ‘break-out’ sessions.
Each meeting space, together with the auditorium is fitted with an Induction Loop system for hard of hearing delegates, together with spaces for wheelchairs.
Lifts are available to all floors and each floor has facilities for wheelchair-based delegates. In many countries such provision is now obligatory, including the UK.
No meeting space or room is more than sixty seconds walk from a toilet or a catering outlet.
Plentiful offices are available for event organizers and the press, for example.
The meeting rooms are almost wholly lit by natural light which is less expensive for the venue and is kinder to delegates’ eyes. Floors have been designed to cope with heavy loads of equipment.
The decor is light and airy and there is plenty of space for safe storage of materials. All meeting rooms are away from the food production areas to reduce noise and smells.
There are plenty of power points and computer access points around the room. The centre is already proving profitable because it was designed in consultation with the industry and is meeting the needs of its different groups of clients admirably.
A hypothetical example of bad practice: Newtown airport
Newtown airport is over forty years old. It was opened in 1960 and enlarged in a piecemeal fashion in 1969 and 1988. Then, in 1995, a new terminal was opened on the other side of the airfield. It seems that the airport has always been too small to meet demand comfortably.
The train station is 2 kilometres away, and passengers have to take a shuttle bus from there to Terminals 1A, 1B, 1C and 2. A shuttle bus also operates between terminals 1A, 1B, 1C and 2. The transfer from the station to the airport takes between 5 minutes and 30 minutes depending on the time of day and traffic volume.
Once inside the terminals, passengers are immediately struck by the low ceilings and the lack of air conditioning which makes the building feel oppressive. Signposting is inconsistent in that signage for a particular place suddenly stops before that place is reached.
The main toilets are in the lower ground floor to which there are stairs but no lifts. The check-ins are cramped and too small. Once passengers have checked-in there is a caf´e in a dark corner without a ‘no-smoking area’.
The business traveller lounge is too small and is on the sixth floor so that passengers have to take the overcrowded lift, up five floors. There are not enough passport control points, so queues develop at busy times.
The airside of the departure section has no catering facilities, just a big duty free shop. There are too few seats and, again, there are no dedicated no-smoking areas.
No announcements are made about flights and there are no information panels in Braille.
At the departure gate the temperatures mount and there is no air conditioning. Because of the design, aircraft cannot be connected to the gate with covered walkways. Instead passengers have to be bussed out to the aircraft. Passengers who use wheelchairs, therefore, have to be physically carried on to the aircraft, not a very dignified experience. In the arrivals area passengers have to walk 500 metres to collect their baggage. They often have to wait because there are not enough baggage carousels. Quite often bags get mixed up, and sometimes they are lost.
The car parks are dark, dingy and not very secure. Furthermore the dedicated disabled parking is on the far side of the car park, furthest away from the entrance.
The major airline based at Newtown airport has experienced a fall in passengers through this airport, its major hub. At the same time its main competitor, which is based at an airport in another country, has noticed an increase in passengers through its hub since it built its new state-of-the-art terminal.
Having looked at this hypothetical example, let us now look at some real airports in terms of their business class lounges, and whether or not they meet the needs of business travellers through their design.
Airline Business Class lounges
In recent years airlines have done much to provide business traveller lounges at airports as part of their attempt to woo such passengers. In February 2000, Business Traveller magazine published a survey of six such lounges to evaluate them. This specialist ‘consumer’ magazine was impressed by the following lounges:
1 The large (4200 square metres) Cathay Pacific ‘The Wing’ lounge at the new Hong Kong airport, together with the cabins with their massage showers, and the rippling water feature. They also noted the quiet reading room. However, the author warned readers that a 20-minute walk and a train trip is required to reach the furthest gates
2 The British Airways ‘The Terraces’ lounge at Manchester airport, which has been zoned and designed for different activities, such as dozing or reading with sunloungers, fax and computer facilities, and smoking. It notes with approval that the children’s area is well away from the working area. They mention the ‘Country Kitchen’ in the food area and the ‘1930s style’ cocktail bar.
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3 The Virgin Atlantic ‘Clubhouse’ at Gatwick and the fact that drinks are served under an aircraft wing-shaped canopy. It says there is a soundproof cinema for viewing videos, films and CDs. There is a video games room, and meeting facilities.
4 The British Airways Concorde lounge at Heathrow lacks business facilities but is artistically decorated with drawings, sculptures and glass panels. Designer furniture completes the effect.
5 The Singapore Airlines ‘Kris’ lounge at Singapore Changi airport seats 600 and is decorated with national materials. The author liked the development of five self-service food and drink service points. High-quality furnishings and aquariums were noted as positive features, as were the shower rooms and massage chairs, television rooms and soundproof phone booths.
6 The American Airlines Heathrow airport lounge is said to aim for an ‘airy’ English country home ambience.
This survey gives a clear impression of what business travellers look for from the lounges which are designed primarily for their use.
Exhibition centres
Before we finish the section on user-friendly design we need to say a few words about the situation with exhibition centres. Many of the points made earlier in relation to convention centres in this chapter also apply to exhibition centres, particularly as more and more purpose-built centres combine conference and exhibition facilities. However, the emphasis in exhibition centre design is on producing multipurpose spaces, easy access for exhibitors and suppliers to deliver heavy goods, and ‘processing’ areas for exhibition visitors. Plenty of lifts are also required near to the goods entrances.
Designers need to ensure that there are no dark corners or other unsuitable locations on the exhibition floor that will be difficult for exhibition organizers to sell to exhibitors.
Many exhibitions aimed at the public can attract tens, if not hundreds of thousands of visitors so road access, car parking and rail station proximity is vital.
Summary
User-friendly design is clearly a matter of identifying user groups and their particular needs and then designing to meet these needs, within the available budget. There is no doubt that user-friendly design helps ensure customer satisfaction and makes repeat business more likely.
The need for industry input in the design process
One of the best ways to ensure that the business tourism physical infrastructure is user friendly is to involve the industry and its consumers in the design process. This means consulting professional bodies, buyers, intermediaries and consumers. These stakeholders need to be involved early in the design process before irrevocable decisions have been taken and their views need to be taken seriously.
However, it is important to ensure that, right at the beginning, the terms of reference for this consultation are made clear to all participants. They need to know where they can and cannot influence the design, and what influence their views will have.
The same principle is true in relation to disabled users, whose representative bodies should be consulted from the beginning of the design of any physical infrastructure in the business travel and tourism sector.
Environmental sensitivity
Designing new physical infrastructure requires sensitivity to environmental issues, whether it is an airport, a hotel, a convention centre or an exhibition venue.
Table 8.1 uses the designing of two new hypothetical business hotels with conference facilities, one in a city and one in a coastal location, to demonstrate environmental principles which should underpin the design of hotels in these situations.
While planning laws will require some of these issues to be addressed before planning permission is granted, in some countries, this is not always the case, particularly in developing countries. Here, it is the responsibility of the individual developer to design the hotel, with environmental sensitivity in mind.
The principles outlined above can, of course, also be applied to the development of convention centres and exhibition centres.
Multipurpose use
Conference and exhibition venues can often only survive if they can attract many different types and sizes of events. They, therefore, need to be designed with flexibility in mind. Usually, this means the following issues for designers:
䊉 creating spaces which can be sub-divided to allow them comfortably to accommodate different sizes of events
䊉 designing spaces with either non-fixed seating, or with fixed seating that can be removed so that the space can be used for exhibitions and drinks receptions as well as meetings.
Often, the need to create multipurpose spaces can cause potential problems. For example, let us imagine that a conference venue within a hotel has two meeting rooms or spaces. Space A is used for the meeting and Space B, which is adjacent and is usually used as a meeting room, is being cleared to act as the venue for the buffet lunch for the Space A group. The problem is that the delegates in Space A will be distributed as the buffet is set up in Space B.
Conference and exhibition venues often have to be used for purposes other than business tourism events. They need to be able to swap from one use to another in a few hours, which poses real challenges for designers. For example the Sheffield Arena, in the UK, is the venue for:
䊉 exhibitions
䊉 major shows and spectaculars 䊉 meetings
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Table 8.1 Environmentally sensitive design principles for two new business hotels with
conference facilities
Issue City hotel Coastal hotel
Site selection and location
䊉 Preferably a ‘brown field’ site rather than a new ‘green field’ site, i.e. using existing buildings or derelict site
䊉 Near to public transport to reduce need for private transport
䊉 Do not choose site with particularly fragile ecosystem or important habitats
Scale 䊉 Appropriate to the location 䊉 No larger than the norm in the area
䊉 Low rise Form and
appearance
䊉 Aim for aesthetic quality so it adds something to the townscape
䊉 Try to design so that it blends into the local vernacular style Materials 䊉 Use recycled or recovered
materials wherever possible, e.g. bricks from demolished buildings
䊉 Local, wherever possible
䊉 Use recycled and recovered materials where possible, e.g. bricks from demolished buildings
Site layout and landscaping
䊉 Soften the building with site
landscaping and green spaces wherever possible
䊉 Soften outlines of the buildings
with landscaping using local species
䊉 Do not over-develop the site Facilities and
services
䊉 Limit parking to encourage public transport use
䊉 Design swimming pool so that water can be recycled and/or use sea water rather than precious fresh water
䊉 ‘Hide’ car parking by landscaping or putting car park underground Other
environmentally sensitive design issues
䊉 Make sure conference/meeting rooms are designed so that they can make maximum use of natural light rather than having to rely on artificial light
䊉 Design the hotel to maximize energy conservation
䊉 Make sure conference/meeting rooms are designed so that they can make maximum use of natural light rather than having to rely on artificial light
䊉 Develop wildlife habitats in the grounds
䊉 Design the hotel to maximize energy conservation
Design compromise Statutory regulations and planning control The client The budget The site Design constraints
Whatever they try to achieve, designers always face constraints that mean that their final design is a compromise between their ideal designs and these constraints, some of which are shown in Figure 8.5.
The budget
This will limit the quality and size of the site, the scale of the buildings and structures, the materials, the quality of finishes and detailing through to the quality of furniture and fittings.
The site
This will impose limitations on the design based on its size and shape, the quality of drainage, previous uses and their legacy, and its accessibility.
The client
Client will have their own preferences, prejudices and experience. These will influence their ideas and will shape the ‘brief ’ which will guide the work of the designer.
Statutory regulations and planning control
Planning regulations, including zoning and building control laws, will affect all aspects of the design. This will be particularly important if the site is a recognized historic building and/or it is in an area affected by conservation legislation.
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The danger of internationalization/standardization
With the growth of globalization, it appears that there is increasing internationalization and standardization of physical infrastructure. The air traveller could, in general, be forgiven for becoming disoriented in most airports, unable to tell from their design where they are.
The same is true of many modern convention and exhibition centres, together with international chain hotels. At least, in the latter case, some hotel designers now attempt to produce designs which incorporate features of the local architecture. However, this trend has not yet extended to many convention and exhibition centres.
This is obviously at odds with the concept of sustainability, which always stresses the importance of the uniqueness of place and the importance of representing that which is local. However, there is a danger that we will simply start producing kitsch pastiches of national and regional stereotypes.
What is needed, perhaps, is an approach to design that endeavours imaginatively to combine elements of local traditional architecture and local materials with modern design ideas and construction technologies.