Design Thinking 2011: Designing furniture for boarders

1. Design Thinking 2011:Designing furniture for boarders

2. Questions asked regarding boarding school 1) Have you/Are you staying in boarding school? 2) How do you find boarding school? Is it better than at home? 3) How are the rules like in boarding school? Are they stricter? 4) How do you find the facilities in the boarding school? 5) How do you do the laundry? Is the laundry service free for boarding students?

3. Questions asked regarding boarding school (continued) 6) I heard you eat at the dining hall. How is the food like? 7) What if at night you suddenly feel hungry? Is there anywhere to get food, for example, from a pantry? If there is a pantry, is there a kettle for boarders to get hot water? 8) Are you allowed to leave the boarding school anytime outside curriculum time to buy food, especially at night? 9) How does your room look like? Is it big? Do you feel comfortable staying in your room? 10) I understand that for boarding school, you have to usually stay with a roommate whom you may not know. How do you get along? Are there any conflicts between both of you?

4. Questions asked regarding boarding school (continued) 11) Is the room conducive for studying? 12) What types of furniture are provided in your room? 13) How do you feel about the furniture in your room? Is it of good quality and standard? 14) What have you learnt after staying at the boarding school? 15) Overall, how would you rate the boarding school?(On a scale of 10, 1 being the worst and 10 being the best.)

5. Interviewee: Soh Kuan Wei 3L • Year 3 student • Prefect • Boarder • PSL of 2012

6. 1) Have you/Are you staying in boarding school? -Yes, I am staying in boarding currently. 2) How do you find boarding school? Is it better than at home? -I think there are banes and boons when staying in boarding. The good thing is that we do not need to travel to get back home, boarding is less than 50m away from school. However, the bad point is that due to influence, I sometimes lose focus whilst studying. Definitely, boarding is not better than home in terms of facilities. As compared to our home with many more better facilities, home is needless to say, better.

7. 3) How are the rules like in boarding school? Are they stricter? -I can only say that boarding has several rules and I think some of them are not really effective. If you ask me are they stricter, I cannot say for sure because they are relative. Yeah, some rules are enforced in boarding really seriously. For example, everyone has to go for roll calls three times a week at around 10pm. This is to ensure everyone is accounted for. Also, from 10.00-10.30pm everyday, all boarders have to scan their fingerprints to mark attendance at machines that have been installed. Other rules that they do not really enforce is that there is lights out at 11.30pm.

8. 4) How do you find the facilities in the boarding school? - Definitely, boarding is not better than home in terms of facilities. The toilets and workspaces in boarding are very small. As compared to our homes with many more better facilities, home is needless to say, better. However, please do take note that air conditions have just been installed in every room. It will operate from term four onwards at a price of $30-$40 every month. Also, boarding will soon have its own cafe inside that will sell pastry such as cakes. It will be open to public but it is meant to cater more for boarders. The opening hours is tentatively till 9pm at night. The cafe will only open around October-November this year. 

9. 5) How do you do the laundry? Is the laundry service free for boarding students? -Now, laundry service in boarding is free. However, there is a limit. Every week, we can only wash 30 pieces of clothing excluding socks and undergarments. I find that the laundry service is quite good in boarding. They always send our clothes on time to the collection point and the clothes are always ironed properly. 6) I heard you eat at the dining hall. How is the food like? -The food in dining hall is getting more delicious. They had just changed the cook 3 weeks ago. Now, everyday, we will have 1 seafood dish such as fish, large prawns or even oyster. However, the drink is really sweet and diluted. Basically, the drink is disgusting. 

10. 7) What if at night you suddenly feel hungry? Is there anywhere to get food, for example, from a pantry? If there is a pantry, is there a kettle for boarders to get hot water? 8) Are you allowed to leave the boarding school anytime outside curriculum time to buy food, especially at night? -When we enter boarding, we are supposed to have food ready in case we get hungry at night. Every level, we have a pantry with 2 fridges with freezers, 1 induction cooker and hot water cooler and microwave. So if you would like to cook stuff, you can use the induction cooker. If you are eating instant noodles, hot water is readily available.

11. 9) How does your room look like? Is it big? Do you feel comfortable staying in your room? 10) I understand that for boarding school, you have to usually stay with a roommate whom you may not know. How do you get along? Are there any conflicts between both of you? -Like I said, the toilets and workspaces are very small. Yeah, we stay with another room-mate. I think the most important thing is to talk things out if you are unhappy with certain things. So usually we will compromise or give in just for once. That is actually a skill and in society, we have to work with people who have different views on certain things in future.

12. 11) Is the room conducive for studying? -Also, like I said earlier, although the room may be conducive for studying, we all stay with a room mate, and sometimes our room mate wants to sleep while you haven’t finished your homework, or that kind of thing, so compromising is very important. The fans are also noisy though. 12) What types of furniture are provided in your room? -As for the furniture in our room, we are each given one study table with an overhead bookshelf. One clothes drawer/closet around 1m long. We are given one bed and one fan per person.

13. 13) How do you feel about the furniture in your room? Is it of good quality and standard? -Well, the beds are relatively hard, though the tables, the bookshelf and the closet are relatively fine with me. 14) What have you learnt after staying at the boarding school? -First of all, time management is very important. Besides school hours, the boarding school also has its own programmes for us. Every Sunday to Thursday, our PREP time is also not very long, so we have to make sure we finish whatever we have to do quickly, so that at night we won’t have conflicts with our room mates. Secondly, we have to learn how to compromise. We cannot always have things our way. Lastly, everyone has to be independent. Our parents will not be there for us when we need help. We have to settle our own problems.

14. 15) Overall, how would you rate the boarding school?(On a scale of 10, 1 being the worst and 10 being the best.) -Well, boarding isn’t that comfortable as compared to home, so I’ll give it a 6.

15. Lose focus while studying Facilities not as good as home Scan fingerprints Less travelling time Need compromising Roll calls Boarding school Stricter Boons Banes Stay with a room mate Rules Hard Induction cooker Microwave Room Bed Hot water Pantry Fan Furniture Toilets Laundry service Facilities Closet Small Study table Bookshelf Workspaces Efficient Free Cafe Small Air-conditioners Dining hall Disgusting Opening soon Drinks Just installed Food Sweet Diluted Better than before

16. Photos of Boarding