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Chapter 3. Feasibility Test

3. Feasibility Test

Is your project feasible?After all the fun with photos, diagrams, and ideas, we now have to go back to a more rigorous task: is your project feasible? Are the quality level, area, budget, and schedule in balance?

Your project working team needs to take out their slide rules, scales, calculators, spreadsheets, and computer models to confirm that all these key four elements are balanced.

You will really need your architect, engineer or project manager on board to help run the calculations. If you can bring a cost estimator or quantity surveyor to the team, they are worth their weight in platinum!

The bulk of the work in the feasibility test is number crunching, and we have provided checklists for your team to use as starting point for the last three of the four elements below: area, budget, and schedule. But first, quality!

Quality levelIn the beginning visioning workshop, you asked your team: “what quality level is needed in the new planetarium building: Rolls Royce, Subaru, or Kia?” A Rolls quality level would have the top-of-the-line technologies and planetarium systems, and the building might have an iconic architectural style, with luxurious finishes and every visitor comfort item available.

A Subaru would still be six-star quality (or seven): excellent performance, practical, but at a lower cost than the Rolls.

The Kia would be durable, dependable, the most economical, and still provide a good ride for your plan-etarium visitors.

One note on quality level is consistency. You can buy a kit to put a Rolls Royce front grille on a Volk-swagen Beetle, but everyone will know it’s still a Bug. Generally, you should have a consistent quality level across all your planetarium elements: technology, design, and operations.

Schedule of accommodationThis area checklist tabulates all the spaces required in the building. In the previous concepts brain-storming workshop, your team will have discussed ideas for all the primary spaces. Now the team should make a comprehensive list of every single space; the total is the gross area.In calculating these space quantities, two thoughts: half the area is hidden, so be comprehensive.

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Visualizing the design concepts

Here are more diagrams to help you visualize and describe possible design concepts. As noted before, you are welcome to use these diagrams in any way you like that will help your project. If you have other cool concepts, ideas or photos, please send them to any of us on the us on the Design and Operations Committee and we will include them on the website.

The whole set of diagrams are posted on the IPS website at https://www.ips-planetarium.org/page/2017DesignGuide.

In this group of the critical concepts, we refer back to the most important goal you defined when you began your project: What is your maximum anticipated seating capacity in your dome?

While dome diameter may be the most common number bantered around in planetarium circles, perhaps a better number to know is: how many people will want to see your shows? This maximum capacity will drive all other variables.

Inextricably woven into the rest of the quantities calcu-lations are the essential variables for building geometry, from these questions on the design concepts checklist:

• Will your dome be flat or tilted? If tilted, at what angle?

• Will your floor be flat or tilted? If tilted, at what angle?

• What viewer orientation is preferred: concen-tric or directional seating?

• Should seating be fixed or moveable/flexible?

These building geometry quantities are inter-related, and related to operations as well (more on operations in future installments).

But until next quarter, consider two hypothetical calculations: How many people will want to see the new Joyeux Noel blockbuster show on a Saturday evening in Paris? Or, how many 7-year old students can sit on cushions on the floor for a Wednesday morning astronomy class in Toulouse?

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Chapter 3. Feasibility Test

The visitor who views your show never sees half the spaces behind the scenes. There are air condi-tioning fans, fire suppression pumps, staff and support, storage, and behind the dome—in other words, more outside space! Be comprehensive and calculate every space as best as you can. The more realistic your space quanti-ties, the greater the probability that your project will succeed, functionally and financially. The schedule of accommodation forms the mathematical foundation for the capital budget and project timeframe, the next steps in the process.

A handy template appears on pages 19-20.

Installment 3Planetarian Vol. 47 No. 1, March 2018Pages 72-73

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Les regrets et régressantIn 1884, Edwin A. Abbott lamented in his book Flatland that the two-dimensional beings in Flatland needed to progress to understand the three-dimensional world. In the introduction to last quarter’s Design and Operations installment, I described how out-spacers live in the future, in another time, in the 4th dimension.

Hopefully, you haven’t gotten your hopes up, since I regret to say the design and construction industry plans in two dimensions. As you will see in this installment, the common way to describe building requirements is in terms of

areas: width times length. Therefore, unfortunately, we will be regressing back to two dimensions. And we have to do some math.

How much space do you need for your planetarium? If that’s tres difficile, try an easier problem: how much space is needed for an Ariane 5? The diameter is 5.4 meters, so (you know the formula) that’s 22.9 m2. Should we count the boosters, too? They’re 3.06 m. in diameter. So add another 14.7 m2 (there are two). Total = 37.6 m2. Tres bien.

But what about that tower hiding behind the rocket? Mon Dieu! The sphere in Flatland would note to the Square that the Ariane 5 is 52 m tall! As you build your planetarium, speak area to your designers and builders, but in the back of your mind, think volume! And if you want to understand this problem first hand, come to Cité de l’espace!1

1 This installment of Outside Space appeared just prior to the 2018 IPS Conference in Toulouse, France.

Left: View of an Ariane with boosters. Photo by ESA. Above, Ariane at Cité de l’espace. Photo by Louis Rafenomanjato. Right: Ariane and tower, wikimedia.

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Chapter 3. Feasibility Test

2018.02.06 IPS -- Schedule of Accommodation -- template -- v1 Tim.xlsx Page 1

Project Schedule of Accommodation

Space Area Notes

The Schedule of Accommodation summarizes all the spaces required in the building. Net areas are spaces occupied by people, equipmentor functions. Net area is the space inside a room, within the walls. Base Building areas are all the other spaces required to make the building work, such as restrooms and building mechanical spaces. The Gross area is the total of the Net and Base Building areas, and essentially is the outside dimensions of the building. The Exterior area is the minimum required site or land area; ideally, you will have lots of land!

NET AREAS

EntryLobby 0 NSM

Ticketing + queuing 0 NSM

Gift shop 0 NSM

Cafe + vending 0 NSM

PlanetariumExhibits + queuing + light transition 0 NSM

Dome (number of seats + diameter) 0 NSM

Stage / platform / performance area 0 NSM

Podium / teaching desk 0 NSM

Control booth 0 NSM

Projection ring + cove + interstitial zone 0 NSM

Projection center zone (if required) 0 NSM

Star ball elevator + pit (if required) 0 NSM

Servers + planetarium equipment 0 NSM

Seat storage (if required) 0 NSM

Dome storage behind-the-scenes 0 NSM

Complimentary Spaces (optional)Classrooms + labs 0 NSM

School group queuing / lunch spot 0 NSM

Collections / other exhibits 0 NSM

Observatory 0 NSM

Production Lab (optional)Studio + production dome 0 NSM

Workstations 0 NSM

Servers + render farm 0 NSM

StaffOffices + workstations 0 NSM

Work + copy / supplies room 0 NSM

Employee break / lunch room 0 NSM

Employee locker room + showers 0 NSM

General storage 0 NSM

Shop + loading dock 0 NSM

Subtotal Net Area 0 NSM NSM (Net Square Meters)

202018.02.06 IPS -- Schedule of Accommodation -- template -- v1 Tim.xlsx Page 2

Project Schedule of Accommodation

Space Area Notes

BASE BUILDING AREA

Base Building AreasMechanical -- heating, ventilating + air conditioning 0 SM

Mechanical -- fire pump, sprinklers 0 SM

Electrical -- power, emergency power, lighting 0 SM

Plumbing -- water, sanitary, drainage 0 SM

Teledata 0 SM

Restrooms + janitorial closets 0 SM

Building service, storage, recycling, trash, waste 0 SM

Circulation, stairs + elevators, emergency exits 0 SM

Basement / lower levels 0 SM

Roof 0 SM

Structure + enclosure 0 SM

Subtotal Base Building Area 0 SM SM (Square Meters)

TOTAL GROSS BUILDING AREA 0 GSM GSM (Gross Square Meters)Gross = Net + Base Building Areas

EXTERIOR AREA

Exterior AreasPublic transit + bus / rail stop 0 SM

School bus drop-off / pick-up / parking 0 SM

Bicycle parking 0 SM

Motorcycle parking 0 SM

Accessible auto parking (number of spaces) 0 SM

Auto parking (number of spaces) 0 SM

Gardens / fountains / landscaped areas 0 SM

Outdoor exhibits + play space + star-gazing deck 0 SM

Outdoor cafe / dining 0 SM

Porte cochere + drop-off 0 SM

Entry plaza + front door rain canopy 0 SM

Loading dock truck parking + canopy 0 SM

Service yard, compactor, dumpsters, recycling 0 SM

Subtotal Exterior Area 0 SM SM (Square Meters)Exterior Areas are outside the building, in addition to the Gross Building Area

TOTAL SITE AREA 0 SM SM (Square Meters)Site = Exterior Areas + Building Footprint