Hints for building a perfect Cinema Complex

2008

Assignment 2: Analysis of existing building type City Stars Cinema Complex [Type the abstract of the document here. The abstract is typically a short summary of the contents of the document. Type the abstract of the document here. The abstract is typically a short summary of the contents of the document.]

City Stars Cinema Complex Hewlett-Packard 10/21/2008

Table of Contents I.Standards of cinema design .....................................................................................5 Accessibility ............................................................................. ...............................5 Entrances................................................................................................. .............5 Parking.................................................................................................. ...............5 Circulation ................................................................................................. ..............5 Lobbies................................................................................................................. .5 Box booth (tickets)................................................................................... .............5 Aisles.................................................................................. ..................................5 Fire Escape.................................................................................................. ..........5 Spaces..................................................................................................................... .5 Cafeteria/Waiting Area..........................................................................................5 Restrooms............................................................................................ .................6 Staff / Storage Rooms...........................................................................................6 Furniture............................................................................................................... ....6 Un-Movable............................................................................................ ...............6 Sound........................................................................................................... ............7 Lights............................................................................................. ..........................8 II.Investigation of City Stars Cinema Complex (Local Case Study)..............................9 Accessibility.............................................................................. ...............................9 Parking................................................................................................. ....................9 Zoning......................................................................................................... ...........10 Bubble Diagram..................................................................................................10 Circulation ............................................................................................... ..............10 Entrances............................................................................................... .............10 Box booth (tickets)................................................................................. .............10 Corridors.................................................................................... .........................10 Aisles................................................................................ ..................................10 Fire Escape................................................................................................ ..........11 Spaces................................................................................. ...............................11 Furniture............................................................................................................. ....13

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Un-Movable.......................................................................................... ...............13 Movable................................................................................ ..............................14 Sound......................................................................................................... ............14 Corridors:..................................................................................... .......................14 Materials:..................................................................................... ......................14 Noise absorber Doors:..................................................................................... ....14 Handicapped........................................................................................ ..................15 Criticism:................................................................................................ ...................15 Positives: ................................................................................................ ...............15 2-Box booth (tickets):................................................................................ ..........15 5-Sound:............................................................................................................ .....15 Negatives:............................................................................................... ...............15 1-Entrances................................................................................................. ........15 2-Fire Escape.................................................................................................. .....16 3-Handicapped.......................................................................................... .............16 III.Analysis of Mandurah Boardwalk Cinema (International Case Study):...................17 Zoning......................................................................................................... ...........17 Plan....................................................................................................... ..............17 Section of the cinema complex...........................................................................17 Circulation ............................................................................................... ..............21 Reception Lobby/Ticket booth.............................................................................21 Fire Escape................................................................................................ ..........22 Accessibility...........................................................................................................22 Cafeteria/Waiting Area........................................................................................22 Furniture............................................................................................................. ....23 Un-Movable.......................................................................................... ...............23 Seating arrangement..........................................................................................23 Movable................................................................................ ..............................25 Sound......................................................................................................... ............25 Handicapped ....................................................................................... ..................25 Parking............................................................................................... ....................25 Fire Rating ...................................................................................................................... ........26

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IV.Comparison between Local & International Case Studies:.....................................27 V.Check List for Optimum Design:.............................................................................28

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I.

Standards of cinema design

Accessibility Entrances i. Entrances with waiting areas to prevent traffic Parking i. Normally 1 per 5 to 10 spectators. ii. The size will depend on the location and the number of seats in the cinema hall, the number of venues. iii. Local laws will determine the number of handicapped and their location.

Circulation Lobbies i. Lobbies mediate between the outdoors and the cinema space itself ii. A successful lobby must be sized to allow comfortable circulation and milling space for all the people iii. Rest rooms, public phones, drinking fountains, concessions and merchandising should be provided and located within easy access. Box booth (tickets) i. Ticket booths require multiple windows and areas for computer workstations. ii. Multiple windows must be available for both current displaying and future displaying. Aisles i. Straight radial aisles are better for seeing purposes (scan from time saver p731) ii. They must be employed in many localities because iii. An aisle should be of a maximum width of 1.2 m. iv. As the aisle length increases with conventional seating, good design practice and building codes generally require that cross aisles be added to the seating plan to ensure reasonable travel distance to exist. Fire Escape i. These should be very obvious to users and positioned so as to allow the rapid dispersion of escaping people in a place of safety, away from fire hazards.

Spaces Cafeteria/Waiting Area i. The foyers are subdivided into actual foyer, cafeteria and a smoking area. An area of foyer should be 0.8-2.0 m²/ spectator. 5|Page

Restrooms i. Bathrooms should have a minimum of one fixture for every 25 people; these should be allocated 65% for women and 35% for men. ii. Rest rooms should be distributed in proportion to the seats at each level of the cinema and also must provide accessible fixtures compliance with applicable codes and regulations iii. People should not have to travel more than one level up or down to get to the rest room. iv. Minimum width of 120cm for handicapped fixture inside the restrooms plus hand rails located on each wall. Staff / Storage Rooms i. There should be a changing and rest room for ushers and technical personnel with a minimum width of 3 m.

Furniture Un-Movable Seating arrangement i. Seating must be designed such that all audience have a clear and unobstructed view of the screen. ii. The spacing between the end of the chair and the front of the other should not be less than 45 cm. this spacing would provide a clear space between the person’s knees and the back of the chair in the next forward row. Also it will not require that a seated person stand to permit passage of another person. Measurement from seat’s back to the next seat’s back should be at least 90 cm as shown in Figure 2. iii. Spectators should sit within the outside edge of the screen. iv. The floor gradient is achieved by an inclination of up to 10 % or by the use of steps with maximum step height of 16 cm

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3 Screen i. The height/side ratio should be 1:2.34. Screens should be sound permeable to allow the sound to be transferred to the audience (the main speakers are located behind the cinemascope screen). The lower edge of the projection screen should be at least 1.20 cm above the floor. The screen should be curved with a radius centered on the last row of seats. ii. The viewing angle from the first row of seats to the centre of the screen should not exceed 30 degrees.

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iii. iv.

The viewing angle from the last row of seats to the centre of the screen should not exceed 38 degrees. The angle from the last row of seat to the outer edge of the picture should be at most 38 degrees. S

Figure 4

Sound i. ii.

Walls and ceilings are made of non reflective materials and not in too bright colors. The back wall of the cinema should be sound absorbent to prevent echo The loudspeakers should be distributed around the auditorium so that the volume differs between the first and the last row of seats does not exceed 4dB.

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iii.

Sound dampers are provided in air ducts to reduce noise from installed machinery into the air conditioning rooms. The length of these in the direction of air flow is 1.5 to 3 m depending on the air damping to be achieved.

Lights i. ii.

The cinema should have no outside light Emergency lights

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II.

Investigation of City Stars Cinema Complex (Local Case Study)

Accessibility City Stars Cinema Complex exists in City Stars Mall, the Cinema is on the 5th floor. There are 2 stairs, 2 escalators and 2 elevators. Parking

Figure 6 Access Plan Figure 5 Floor Plan

Parking City Stars Mall includes an easy accessible indoor parking which is designed to fit over 6,000 vehicles. If someone is going to the cinema, he/she is required to show the cinema ticket and he pays a low price for the parking fees.

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Zoning Bubble Diagram. Box Office

Cafeteria Cinema Halls

Seat s

Office

Room

Circulation Entrances There are 2 glass double doors with a total width about 2 meters, only one is used for the audience to come and the other one is not used even in case of high seasons. After accessing the door, the entrances are with big waiting areas. Box booth (tickets) As mentioned above that City Stars is one of the biggest cinema in Egypt, it was required to have a big number of tickets' window in order to avoid the crowd; City Stars Cinema has 10 ticket windows with 120 cm width. Behind the windows, there are areas for computer workstations. Corridors The corridors leading to the cinema have two right angle corners; they are wide enough which allow a good circulation among the audience. Their width is 182cm. Aisles The aisles in City Stars Cinema are strait. In the big cinema that fit big number of audience, the cinema is designed to have 2 aisles which make it more easily for people to come in and out. They have three steps repeated each 150 cm for the ease of walking down through the corridor. Each step is about 10 cm with also in comfortable high for all ages of users. 10 | P a g e

Fire Escape Each cinema hall has only 1 exit door leading to one corridor that is leading to the street. The width of the fire exit double door is 170 cm. The Only corridor that links all the cinema fire exit doors is about 220 cm wide. Spaces Cafeteria/Waiting Area The Entrance in City Stars Cinema Complex is divided into several areas; main entrance, cafeteria and a smoking area. A large space is located in the entrance to accommodate a cafeteria bar and its tables and chairs. As people going to the cinema always like to eat snacks and the most popular one in cinemas is popcorn, in City Stars Cinema Complex, there is a suitable area that allow users to buy what they want to eat in the cinema without a need to go outside. This cafeteria doesn’t need a kitchen for it since it doesn’t offer cooked food, only snacks. The place holds about 8 round tables with their 4 chairs around them. The waiting area is also designed to allow smoking in the area as it is equipped with a ventilation system.

Figure 7 Cafeteria's waiting area

Restrooms It is a must for any public place to have restrooms for its users. Bathrooms were taken into consideration in the space planning design. The bathroom area is located next to the 11 | P a g e

entrance, employees’ offices, cafeteria and halls. It is the easiest places to go to from anywhere in the cinema complex. The entrance of the restrooms doesn’t allow the users to enter directly to the bathrooms. There is a right angle turn to enter the bathrooms which gives privacy to the users inside there. Both the men’s and women’s had 3 to 4 cabinets. The sinks and toilets cabinet are very close to each other. Staff/Storage Rooms Offices: After all a huge complex like this one must be ran by high value employees who deserve suitable offices to stay in. The employees' job in the cinema obliges them to watch all facilities and always be present close to them. In the cinema complex the offices were located between the ticket booths and the cinema halls to allow employee go anywhere easily if there is a problem or so. The area of the offices is almost 5 x 2.5 m. there is only one office for all the managers. Storage Room: The cinema staff uses a storage room to store bathrooms utilities and banners. According to the Cinema manager, the space of the room is small. Air Conditioning Rooms Projectors Room: There is a high level located in the back of the cinema halls, opposite to the screen where all the projectors and A/C rooms are located. This floor consists of small rooms to accommodate the A/C and projectors. In able to reach this floor, 20 steps @ 20cm should be climbed. Its height is about 4 m. The corridor is very narrow. It makes only one person to pass through it, about 70 cm. For a huge cinema complex like this one, there should be huge air conditioning to make the weather in the cinema comfortable for its users.

Figure 8

For each hall there is a room of A/C machines. These rooms should be directly facing the halls in order to build its air tube into the cinema halls. The rooms of the A/C are about 10 m². 12 | P a g e

These rooms are located in the higher level of the A/C, the projectors are located. These projectors are all on one straight line as well as the cinema off course. They don’t need to be put on a room. They have their own place between the rooms of the A/C but open to the corridor.

Furniture Un-Movable Seating arrangement i.

City stars cinema complex has large halls that fit around 250 people. And also it has small halls that fit 200 people. It has large showing rooms. There is a good distance between each row, about 70cm, to allow people to go to their seat without having to bump into the others sitting down. The halls are inclined with a certain angle to allow all audience to have a clear and unobstructed view of the screen. ii.

The seats at City Stars Cinema are very comfortable and padded. Table 1

Features

Large halls

Small halls

•

Capacity

250

200

•

Number of aisles

2

1

•

Number of seats per row

18 (divided by two aisles)

14 ( divided by one aisles )

Screen The screen is put 650 cm away from the first row of spectators to allow them see the screen easily without hurting their neck. The screen’s height form the ground is 170 cm to allow all the spectators to have a comfort vision of it. Doors All the door of the cinema halls are double doors of width 180 cm

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Movable Seats in lobby There are four tables, each one has four chairs. These are located in the waiting area.

Sound Corridors: They are done curved to the right angle in order to distort noise. Materials: Carpets are glued on the floor and on the walls inside the cinema halls and its corridors. Noise absorber Doors: All the doors of the cinema are double doors which are sound isolating (no vibration can exit the hall.).

Figure 9

Figure 10

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Handicapped On the entrance of City stars cinema, one will find that there is a large number of stairs; the designers didn't take into consideration about having someone coming with wheelchair, in the cinema theater itself, and the bathrooms. There are no slopes. There are only stairs.

Criticism: Positives: 1- Parking: There are enough parking slots that are enough to suite the people who come to watch a movie in the cinema.

2- Box booth (tickets): The number of ticket windows that exist is enough to suit the cinema, Also, in front of the ticket window there is a big free space that allow people to circulate smoothly during the crowd days. The ticket windows are designed well compared to the standard design. 3- Cafeteria/Waiting Area: The cafeteria and the waiting area are following the standard design as mentioned above. 4- Seating arrangement: The seating arrangement in City Stars Cinema Complex is designed well as it allow all audience to have a clear and unobstructed view of the screen. Additionally, it seats are comfortable for people as the distance between each row is enough.

5- Sound: Sound is good treated in City Stars Complex as it is treated in all way possible starting with the curved corridors leading to the Cinema halls, to the furniture used in the halls and finally the double doors that don't allow vibration to cross the hall.

Negatives: 1- Entrances As they are only using one door, this doesn't allow a smooth circulation during high seasons because this entire number of audience is required to show their tickets at a time which takes a lot of time. If the other door gets opened, this will allow a free, smooth circulation towards the waiting area. 15 | P a g e

2- Fire Escape As each cinema hall has only 1 exit door leading to one corridor leading to the street; this doesn’t allow a rapid dispersion of escaping people. People hurrying to escape in case of fire can pull each other as the space is not wide enough. This may cause severe catastrophe.

3- Handicapped The design in City Stars Cinema Complex doesn't help handicaps to have a smooth circulation to the cinema, in other words, the design is not done to suit or welcome any handicap to come in. this starts by having a big number of stairs that one has to cross in order to reach the cinema without having any slopes. Also, in the bathrooms, there is no bathroom designed for handicaps.

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III.

Analysis of Mandurah Boardwalk Cinema (International Case Study):

Zoning Plan

Figure 11 International Case Study Floor Plan

Section of the cinema complex.

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Figure 12 Section

:

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Bubble Diagram

Figure 13 Bubble diagram of the Cinema Complex

Cafeterias

Fire Exit Cinema Auditorium

Rest Rooms

Lobbies Stairs

Circulation Reception Lobby/Ticket booth The tickets counters are 12 in number, out of which 2 are for handicap people with a lower counter which makes it easily accessible for a wheelchair person.

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Figure 14 The maximum and the minimum distance the wheelchair person can reach

Aisles The aisles differences from one auditorium to another, because there are 6 halls, out of which 3 are of different sides. The current aisles are as explained below: Table 2

Auditorium Number Required Aisles 2 2.5 4 2.5 6 1.5

Current Aisles 2.75 2.6 2.6

Table 1: Each auditorium and the current aisles Fire Escape There are also two fire exit in every hall, one is directly from the cinema to the outside and the other exist is through a path from the foyer area, provided that there is a Portable fire extinguishers and fire hose reels and a External fire hydrant protection as well. There are also emergency exist way and there are emergency lights as well.

Accessibility Cafeteria/Waiting Area There are candy bars looked near the cinema hall entrances, which are easily accessed.

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Another important feature which makes the place attractive is the wide range of restaurants and café shops which are around the city center. The café is a longitudinal extension, and it is receded inside so that the way is not blocked by those passing by. There is also a number of columns which are arranged in such a way so to separate the auditoriums entrances from the cafeteria. The columns also act as a partition between the chairs which are kept in the opposite direction from the cafeterias. Figure 15 The loop area is wide and there are number of seating zones

Furniture Un-Movable Seating arrangement Seating space for people with disabilities are placed in the sixth row from above, whereby the access to this seating is done through a wheelchair stair lift travelling up of the 2 main aisles. The cinema auditorium is made up of stadium type of seating, whereby the access and the egress of this seating is through 2 stepped aisles located at the sides of the auditorium. Each one of the 3 halls is of a different size, the number of seating in the hall and its capacity is listed below. Table 3 The seating capacity in each auditorium

Auditorium Number 2 4 6

Seating Capacity 256 214 141

The second auditorium is the largest and then the fourth is the Intermediated and the sixth one is the smallest among them. The seat is 1090 in width and 400 in height, and it is an armchair which is comfortable in seating and luxury in appearances.

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Standards

Local Case Study

International Case Study

Accessibility There is no walking area distance between the cinema auditorium and the parking. If one parked his/her car in the parking, he has to go up stairs average 5 to 7 floors.

The parking area is within a walking distance from the cinema auditorium and is also designed for handicap people.

The entrance will allow a smooth circulation if they opened the other door already designed. Additionally, They have a wide waiting area.

No Information

2. Box Office (Ticket Booth)

The box office is made to the standard but there is special ticket window for handicaps.

The box office is made to the standard level and it also have two counters for handicap people.

3. Corridors

The corridors are wide enough to allow a smooth circulation.

No information

4. Aisles

The aisles are designed up to the standard, as in big cinemas there are 2 aisles that allow free circulation. It is not designed to suit the needs of handicaps as there are made of stairs and there are no slopes.

The aisles are designed so that it is above the standards required, thus providing a wider space for the occupants of the cinema, making it more comfortable and luxuries. It is also designed to suit the needs of the handicap viewers.

There is only one fire exit door in each hall, all of them leading to only one corridor; the corridor doesn't allow smooth circulation n case of fire.

There are 2 fire exits in each hall, thus satisfying the basic requirements of the cinema, and the corridor is wide enough to allow the wheelchair people to escape during fire.

The waiting area is designed up to the standard. It includes a big cafeteria that provides a wide variety of snacks.

The cafeteria are designed so that it doesn’t block the way to the cinema auditorium, and it also includes a wide range of cafes and snacks, so that it attract people to the place, and also designed as per the local law of disability.

There are no restrooms designed for handicaps. The bathrooms location is designed in a way that provides privacy.

No information

1. Entrances to the cinema complex 2. Parking

Circulation 1. Entrances

5. Fire exits

Spaces 1. Cafeteria/Waiting Area

2. Restrooms

3. Staff Rooms

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Figure 16 The Seating areaa inside auditorium 4

Screen The screen is placed at a distance of 2 meters from the first row of seating, and it is at a height of 1245 from the ground. The screen is 7370 as its total height and the rows of seating are within a height of 4000 from the ground. This measurement is as per the 6th auditorium, which is the smallest of all (Section, Fig 2). The auditorium is also wall-to-wall screen.

Movable Seats in lobby

Sound Handicapped The cinema hall is designed in such a way that it fulfill the Standard requirement of the physical disable people. There are two elevators, whereby the wheelchairs people can easily use it. It is however, the only cinema of its type in Australia. The total width of the wheelchair stair is 1020 mm. The installation of the wheelchair stair lift will effectively close off one aisle in a worst case scenario.

Parking Car Parking surrounds the complex, and Reading Cinemas Mandurah is within walking distance from the town centre. There is also a number of parking meant to be for disable people now, which is designed with the following measurement.

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Figure 17

Fire Rating The wall is designed so to resist the fire between the cinemas for a minimum of 2 hours whereas the doors fire rating is 1 hour. The doors are one hour fire rating between the cinema and the lobby.

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IV.

Comparison between Local & International Case Studies:

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V.

Check List for Optimum Design: •

Summary of Design Requirements

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