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Vital Signs Case Study
ARCH 592: Environmental Controls Systems II

Café Paradiso
Eugene, Oregon

Vicki Merkel
Deonne Schoner

GTF: Joe Snider

Conclusions:

What we found to be true about our initial instinct regarding the lighting at Café Paradiso is that people do respond strongly to the daylight and the electric light. It was a profound influence in directing the customer's seating choice within the establishment. What we had not anticipated was that customers have many other more compelling reasons for choosing to sit in a particular place than the hour of the day or the daylight conditions. What was learned in this study is that people like a variety of lighting conditions and seating comfort. It opens up a range of atmospheres within a distinctive environment. This creates a space that can support a wide range of activities and clients, thus being a good recipe for a successful business.

Lessons Learned:

What was proven in our case study is that our hypothesis was a good instinct but left no latitude for accommodating a person's moods, whims, and/or individuality which are greater forces than merely the lighting of the space. Despite the fact that we were unable to prove our hypothesis (or more accurately, because of this fact) we feel that our methodology was extremely successful. We actually ended up with more information than we had intended to gather. The difficulty came when we were trying to find an effective visual method to disseminate this information without getting bogged down in the minutia.

Design Lesson:

When creating a space it is important to think of what kinds of activities you wish to support and what kind of clientele you wish to attract. Do you want to have a singular type of space with a singular type of seating? Or do you want a variety, like Café Paradiso, that provides many different areas with distinctive moods through varied types of lighting and seating styles? It is always good to visit a site that has the elements you wish to attain and find out why they are and are not successful to determine which of those elements you wish to incorporate into your design.

Recommendations for Further Work in this Area of Design:

Lighting is an extremely well documented area of design. If any further work could be recommended we feel that it would be in the area of documenting more case studies like this one. While technical data on appropriate light levels for various tasks is useful, the information that we gathered in terms of human behavior as a result of (or in spite of) the lighting of a space is valuable information for any designer and we feel should be more closely examined.