KILMARNOCK COLLEGECentre of Sporting ExcellenceDCDP was employed to refurbish the existing café catering for students and lecturers at the Centre of Sporting Excellence at Kilmarnock College, Ayrshire. The brief was to use existing equipment where possible, but to bring the facility up to modern and safe standards, allowing the catering staff to offer a comprehensive food product in keeping with the ethos of the facility.
New air extract equipment was designed and installed, along with additional pieces of equipment replacing those which did not comply in efficiency or ergonomic terms, or which did not allow the catering staff to maintain the quality of the food offer. New food-safe wall and floor coverings were installed, as were stainless steel splashbacks, services voids (to prevent the ingress of food behind appliances), lighting and other services. This entailed 1st and 2nd fix replacement of water, electricity and waste facilities. All existing equipment was either serviced, or replaced with new, and testing and commissioning was part of the brief. Energy-efficient refrigeration and food-holding equipment was used where appropriate. |
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Staff could easily monitor the consumption of the menu items on the front service line, and seamlessly replenish food items from the second food line, which had been prepared in advance.
The facility was named ‘Kaleidoscope’, and the turnover, and the profits, have increased immeasurably, because the students enjoy the varied menu, the speed of service, the healthy-option choices, the modern, attractive and bright ambience, with clever lighting, comfortable furniture. The College was delighted with the facility given to them, and Instock has a rolling programme of works for the College, a sure indication that the high quality of work is continued from one project to the next. |
KILMARNOCK COLLEGEMain RefectoryThe brief was to afford the students access to the food menu without having to conform to standard, old-fashioned queuing methods, a problem endemic in catering facilities such as canteens, garden centres, or where large volumes of customers collect. This very British ‘bottle-necking’ phenomenon is difficult to counter, but the design team strove to allow customers to ‘pop-in’ and ‘pop-out’ of the various food offerings, and gather their food requirement without having to stand in a continuous queue. This design process allowed quicker processing of customers requirements, and made for quicker service, before, and at the till. So, a customer who just wanted a cup of tea, or a piece of fruit, was not hindered behind another customer waiting for a soup and main course lunch, or a made-to-order sandwich. The facility was designed to allow in-and-out access to the teas and coffees area, the pre-made sandwich area, the hot food section, the soup section, the salad area and the cold drinks section. The customers gather their food, and head to one of two cash tills, staffed to deal with the volume of demand.The main refectory at the College had been in existence for over forty years, and had been providing a quality food offer to thousands of students a week, but which required a major refurbishment to cope with a much-changed customer base, with a more diverse and demanding palate, and to maintain its hygiene and safety standards. DCDP was invited to put together proposals that efficiently provided a modern and stylish, yet robust and efficient, canteen facility, that was easy on the eye; that would attract a broader customer-base; that would allow a flexible, healthy-option season-oriented menu, and one that would create a pleasant and safe working environment for the catering staff. Additionally, it was important that the design allowed for ‘modularisation’, where the equipment could be easily dismantled and moved to the new College, when it is completed some time around the year 2015/2016. The project took around four weeks to complete, and comprised the following: strip-out and dispose of all equipment, floor and wall coverings, ventilation and lighting, and replace with new. This entailed digging up old quarry tiles and gullies, stripping off wall tiles and old plasterboard, ripping out all services, including gas pipes, electric cabling, hot, cold and waste water pipes, and starting from scratch. |
KILMARNOCK COLLEGETraining KitchenPart of the Kilmarnock College curriculum is to provide students with practical and theory-based training in the skills required for the hospitality trade, and, in particular, cooking skills. To this end, DCDP was commissioned to design and build a training workstation facility, to enhance the facilities already on offer to the students and staff.
A generously-proportioned lecture room within the College was given over to the install team, and the brief was to provide a state-of-the-art facility, to include a centrally positioned prep table / workstation, where the students could work, opposite one another, and where the lecturer could interact with them, either by going from one workstation to the other, and yet lecture to the students from a position close to them. It was decided that a ‘question-mark’ shaped table, accommodating up to ten students and a lecturer, be designed. This concept was compact enough to allow visual connection by the students to the lecturer, and vice versa. He lecture could be conducted by means of an overhead screen, so that the students would have an ‘aerial’ view of the task being performed by the lecturer. Induction hobs were installed at each workstation, and there is sufficient room for students to store utensils on or under their workstations. Power was allocated to each workstation, to facilitate the use of stick blenders, food processor, and so on. Additional catering facilities were provided on the perimeter of the room; cooking equipment including a combination steam oven, fryers and griddle; dishwash area; sinks and prep areas; refrigeration and storage, and the facility was finished off with a bespoke-designed extraction and air-handling system. |