Play: Dining
COVID-19 Research
Dining
What’s Inside
Research Basis
Findings
Play—Dining
Our research into PLAY environments is divided between Lodging and Dining. The response to a pandemic is unique for each building typology. Yet they are often connected in important ways. Most hotels have restaurants of some kind, and in a number these cases, the restaurant is operated by an outside vendor. Our findings on Lodging can be found here.
Research Basis
Play and social interaction are essential to human nature. How do we alter our methods to do this safely?
“Clean is the new green”
Hospitality Design Trends Before and After the Pandemic, CP ExecutiveHow do we design environments that create a sense of calm and happiness during a time of stress and fear?
Realities
Existing Conditions: Some hotels and restaurants will be able to adapt to social distancing practices better than others. Luxury spaces tend to provide more space for guests than more economic facilities. They are also more likely to have automatic/touchless systems in place.
Staff Safety: Some staff members may be elderly or have health conditions that put them at greater risk.
Findings
01 Defining Safety
Contactless Dining
Physical menus gone, no cash payment, no shared condiments
Self service is a hazard
Touch screens, beverage and condiment stations, buffets may go to the wayside
Staff need to be tested, initially for symptoms, and whenever available for the new virus.
Signage critical to advertise take-out abilities and provide an assurance of health safety
Markers on the floor for social distancing, signs explaining policies, etc.
Covid-19 for Restaurants, What’s Working and What Will Become Part of the New Normal, FSR Magazine Escapist Restaurant Interiors Could be Lasting Design Legacy of the Pandemic, Dezeen
Restaurants are a critical part of the public sphere. They will return by incorporating modifications that provide trust and safety
Fundamental as places of hospitality, gatherings, celebrations, and day-to-day activities
Provide convenience and sustenance, 24/7
Restaurants have always had our trust. Focus should be on rebuilding this trust
Transparency of kitchens to let guests see that food is prepared safely
Escapist Restaurant Interiors Could be Lasting Design Legacy of the Pandemic, DezeenEnsure trust through visual certifications of compliance
Modifications to be made such as transparent screens for any self serve areas
An environment that is easily navigable through interior design and signage furthers the mission of public adherence to protocols and regulations.
Support people - employees need to have safe, protected working conditions
All employees to have temperature checks
All employees and guests required to wear masks
02 A cleaner place to be than your own kitchen.
Cleaning should become systematic and transparent to the guest.
Frequency of disinfection.
Minimalistic design enables more thorough cleaning
Rejection of ornamentation
Microbial materials everywhere, not just in the kitchen. These materials allow for quick, easy, and thorough cleaning.
Escapist Restaurant Interiors Could be Lasting Design Legacy of the Pandemic, Dezeen
Personal hygiene infrastructure
Automatic doors, touchless sinks/ hand dryers, hand sanitizer available, etc.
03 Food safety now has spatial implications.
Established food regulations and health & sanitation codes will be coupled with operational distancing, exchange areas, customer contact zones to affect restaurant floor plans.
Flexibility and agility of design for pre- and post- pandemic scenarios.
Spatial changes affect the public realm (waiting, dining) and back of house (delivery transition, storage, kitchen).
New configurations will prioritize ease of cleaning and emphasize sanitation to create a safe environment for guests
Inventive devices for safe restaurant eating
Glass cabins for 2-3 people
Dutch Restaurant Trials Glass Booth for Dining Amid Coronavirus, ReutersSuspended 360 degree, plexiglass shields over each dining chair
Christophe Gernigon’s Hanging Shields Imagine Future of Restaurant Dining, designboom
04 Dining on-site will be less communal.
Atmosphere will come from other aspects of spatial design and less from vitality, vibrancy, and buzz of other fellow diners.
Escapist Restaurant Interiors Could be Lasting Design Legacy of the Pandemic, DezeenSix foot rule may not be possible to implement and maintain viable seating counts within existing spaces; creative solutions to seating (booths, small private rooms)
Getting a drink at the bar while you wait for a table needs to be rethought. Invent solutions that make people feel comfortable; just in time seating, niches where patrons feel separate, and tempered outdoor spaces comfortable year round.
Elimination of buffet-style and family-style food servery.
Elimination of all self-serve stations is not possible, but these areas should be minimized and configured with new safeguards.
05 Increased Focus on the Take-out
Challenges in retrofitting space to provide enough space for designated takeout areas, drive through windows, etc
Restaurants may feel a social obligation to provide takeout meals for essential workers
Family meals and meal kits to now be available options for take-out
Decreased menu options for take-out efficiency
Easier and faster to produce with limited staff
Packaging
The new factor of tamper proof will be added to existing factors of price, function, and sustainability
Covid-19 for Restaurants, What’s Working and What Will Become Part of the New Normal, FSR Magazine
06 Restaurants have an integral role in the public realm.
Where seasonally possible, extend on-site dining to the outdoors.
Expansion of facilities for uses outside the confines of the premises (such as sidewalks, curbside areas) need regulatory barriers (zoning, etc.) for dining use to add to the urban vitality (replace some of what is lost due to reduced densities indoors).
Enhance the convenience of guest access: pedestrians, cyclists, pick-up.
07 Air quality, staff health, contamination…
Add High filtration (HEPA), disinfection (germicidal ultraviolet) at mechanical units to stop airborne transmission; fresh outside air.
Staff are checked; changing and storage areas for donning clean attire and PPE.
Where possible utilize no-touch (apps, digital displays) or disposal items (one-use menus)
No touch solutions for touch screens/ self service such as voice commands
Covid-19 for Restaurants, What’s Working and What Will Become Part of the New Normal, FSR MagazineHigh-touch surfaces - doors, knobs, chairs, tables, dispensers - be of antimicrobial materials or cleaned after every use.
Restrooms are a particular point of congregation and therefore are high risk zones; public facing handwashing stations to encourage and socialize the ritual of washing before meals?
08 Escapist experience for special occasion dining ($$).
Reservations more important than ever to control occupancy and planning seat distancing
Branded experience to rely on designed sensual experiences beyond the food and vibrancy of communal patronage.
Higher end, experience based restaurants are better able to space out tables and still be successful financially
People more willing to venture out in public for an experience they can’t have at home
Push for more originality
Escapist Restaurant Interiors Could be Lasting Design Legacy of the Pandemic, Dezeen