Realizing an "Open Kitchen Classroom"
Air conditioning approach

This project aims to create a new culinary school in cooperation with the neighboring university and the local community, a place to train students who can focus on society rather than just techniques, and an open learning space that blends into the local community. From the perspective of MEP Engineering, we made various adjustments with other professions to realize the concept of "blending the building into its surroundings" with an open spatial composition.

In particular, the "kitchen" was a key point in terms of the facility. Kitchens tend to be generally closed off, but here we made it open as a "classroom" and took care to create a comfortable environment. We will introduce the key points of this approach.

In this building, regular classrooms are divided by glass partitions instead of doors, and the design allows students to see inside, allowing them to see each other's activities. The faculty and staff spaces, which support a free address system, are also open, with no walls or doors and separated by furniture. This removes the barriers between students and staff, creating a space where they can talk casually.
In addition, at the request of the client, we adopted vertical ceilings in these spaces to make the spaces look spacious. We confirmed with the architect the appearance of the insulation material to be wrapped around exposed ducts, etc., and planned to integrate it with the architectural design.

On the other hand, for "rooms with high ventilation," such as practice rooms with kitchens, we design the air flow according to the room's purpose, such as by balancing the exhaust and intake air volumes to complete ventilation within that room.
At this time, the amount of air supplied to the room increases in accordance with the amount of exhaust from the kitchen hood. However, rather than taking in all of the outside air as is, some of it is treated by an outside air conditioning unit (outside air processing air conditioner) before being supplied, thereby appropriately managing the air temperature and also taking into consideration the comfort of the users.

We considered how to ensure the functionality and comfort of the classrooms and practice rooms, including the kitchen, while creating a sense of spatial connection with the open classrooms and corridors.
We focused on 1) a practice room with an open kitchen and seating, and 2) a classroom where the kitchen is only at the teacher's desk.
The kitchen and seating areas have different heat generation, ventilation, and physical work intensity (metabolic rate levels), so there is a big difference in the thermal environment. If the kitchen is air-conditioned as a single space, the seating areas will inevitably become cold.

Therefore, focusing on this "environmental difference," we deliberately created a plan that separated the design from the air conditioning equipment.
The seating area has a vertical ceiling to match the design of the other rooms. On the other hand, a ceiling was installed in the kitchen area to prevent dust from accumulating in the ducts and pipes, and to reduce the volume of the kitchen area to improve ventilation and air conditioning efficiency. To make the space feel larger, the installation area was kept as small as possible, and the placement of the air conditioning equipment, air outlets, and intakes in the ceiling was closely adjusted.

In addition, the kitchen and seating areas are separated to match the ceiling design, and air conditioning zoning is implemented so that the temperature settings can be changed for each. This allows users to spend time in a comfortable environment regardless of how they use the space. In classrooms where the kitchen is only installed at the teacher's desk, the amount of ventilation differs when the kitchen is in use and when it is not, so the ventilation equipment can be used separately.

Today, technological approaches such as improving energy efficiency are becoming more and more important. In addition to these efforts, we believe that an important issue in MEP Engineering is to focus on the actual usage and aim for a design that balances architectural design and functionality.