Can your furniture cause cancer?

Manufactured boards are boards made from wood products such as ply wood, chip board and Medium Desity Fibre[MDF] board.

They usually come in a standard size of 4 feet by 8 feet.

Due to the scarcity of wood products, MDF boards have become common and are a good replacement to plywood, chipboard and blockboard.

MD boards are made by glueing wood fibres under intense heat and pressure.

The strength of the board is measured by the screwing strength of the section in Newtons. The average screwing strength is around 750-1000N.

The glue used is fomaldehyde based .
Research shows that formaldehyde causes various side effects to humans.
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This has resulted to the grading of MDF in terms of formaldehyde level, E0 being the lowest and E4 the highest. Most MDF boards on sale in Kenya and around the world contain EI and E2 formaldehyde levels .

MDF boards are sold with or without the laminate. The laminate can be on one side or both sides. The laminate is finished smooth to various natural wood finishes such as peach, oak, teak and mahogany.

The strength of the MDF is directly proportional to its thickness, density and internal glue bond.
Most MDF is manufactured in thickness of between 8 mm to 20mm. The mdf laminate skins are usually 2mm thick.

For furniture use which is not structural i.e does not support alot of weight such as wardrobe door, 12mm MDF both sides veneered is recommended. For Furniture that supports heavy weights such as tables, doors, 16 to 20mm MDF boards thicknesses are recommended. Once your architect has information of the design and preferred uses for the boards, he will be in a position to advise you accordingly.
The thickness is also important if the MDF board is going to be grooved. If a groove is to be engraved, MDF of 12 mm and above is recommended.

Frank Gichuhi
http://www.prismafrica.com
Nairobi, Kenya.

How to Increase new customers through display stand designs.

How to Increase new customers through display stand designs.

Research has proven that the design of a display stand influences the number of buyers of a product.
A study carried out by the Small Business Association on the effects of display signage on restaurant customer base discovered that over 30 percent of new customers in a typical restaurant entered the restaurant because they got attracted to the display sign.
The most significant factor in attraction of new customers came from the display design.

Research also shows that over 70 percent of sales of a product in the supermarkets are influenced by the display design. That is to say if two same products from two different companies are placed side by side in a supermarket shelf, and one product is placed in a well designed display, the product in the well designed display will sell 70% more than the other.
Display stands must be designed to be unique and communicate strongly to the customer so that they stand out from the other competing displays around them.

We at Prism Designs work with our clients to come up with the best and most cost effective designs that attract and appeal to the customers’ eye.

The best display designs are the ones that influence the buyers without the buyers feeling pressurized to buy.
Currently, the displays in the market are so many and too common such that the customers do not seem to notice them. This is why unique and innovative display designs are very crucial to drive the sales up.

Well designed display stands also enhance a product’s brand and etch the product’s logo in the customer’s mind which makes a very powerful attachment to customers so as to influence potential later sales.

Overall architectural design of the complete building or shop is also a key factor in driving sales up because when well designed, this increases the audience and can target many more customers.

Simple but not simplistic.

Designs can be designed to look simple so as to easily communicate with the cognitive mind. Such designs may look simple but in reality, are very powerful tools of communication of a particular brand hence increasing sales.

A good display design will effectively show-case your products and let them stand out from the competition resulting I increased sale.

Article written by
Frank Gichuhi

Frank Gichuhi is an Architect working with Prism Designs.

Prebuilt Homes: Good Return on Investment.

Prebuilt homes are advantageous in investment in that due to their mobile nature, they can be transported to any location that the customer has land and erected .They can also be rented out to increase customer’s income.

Increase rental income.

If you want to improve your rental income easily, this is one of the best ways. Just have a prefab house installed in your backyard and rent it out at market rate. You can have the house designed to your specific requirement in terms of size, number of bedrooms, color and texture. These houses are far much cheaper to construct compared to the traditional houses costs in Kenya.

Quick Business space expansion

You may also be in need of more office space for your business and need a quick solution for expansion. The prefabricated house designs are flexible, quick to install and can be designed to suit all your requirements. Whether the land is in Nairobi, Mombasa, Nakuru, Lokichoggio or South Sudan, these houses can be easily transported to the site and quickly installed.

Quality Assurance; ISO 9001-2000

These are houses that are manufactured in factories and assembled on site. The walls, roofs and doors are made of Structural Insulated Panels.[SIP].

The SIP Panels are made of two layers of steel with polyurethane foam insulation in between them. This results to a strong walling that is very energy efficient: when it’s cold, no heat can escape from the house and when it’s hot, no heat can penetrate from the outside into the house.

These houses are designed to withstand strong winds, typhoons and earthquakes and most manufacturers are ISO certified. In Kenya, the weather is not as harsh i.e. there are no winters and the temperatures are not so high during the hot season.
These houses are designed to withstand very hot temperatures and very cold winters. These houses are also designed to withstand earthquakes, strong winds and typhoons which are virtually non-existent in Kenya.

The SIP panels come in various finishes and colors. Customers can choose which color and texture they prefer.SIP roof panels can be finished with Asphalt shingles.

SIP panel homes can come in several storeys, usually 3 storey heights.

The above factors coupled with cost-effectiveness, time saving and ability to pre-determine the exact cost of construction make Prebuilt SIP panel houses increasingly advantageous over the traditional Brick-and –cement houses throughout the world.

Buying a new home: Checking out quality of finishes.

When buying your new house, finishes play a very crucial role to determine the value of the house. Your architect will be of great help in advising you on the most appropriate finish for a particular room.

Floor.

Floor finishes vary according to one’s taste, room use and budget.
In living rooms, the cheapest finish is cement plaster screed. This is cement plaster applied on top of the floor slab. It can be colored into different shades of red, green and blue.
Another cost-effective method is use of PVC tiles. These tiles can be arranged to a specific pattern and colors mixed to achieve a desired effect. They come in various thicknesses depending on the traffic that they will contain.
Ceramic tiles are also common in Kenya. These also come in various colors and textures. They are durable, easy to clean and cheap. These are fixed to the concrete floor slab using cement mortar.
Granito tiles are expensive and are mostly used in office floors and banking halls. They come in larger sizes 450mm by 450mm since they are designed to cover large floor spans.
Marble tiles are also in the range of granite tiles but more expensive. These are best suited in entrance porches or other highly visible areas.
Wood tiles are made of hardwood and are a very comfortable floor finish. They come on wood block, wood parquet or wood strips. They make the rooms feel warm and cosy. They are costly to purchase and should be avoided in wet areas.
Wood plastic laminate floor finish is a new floor finish that looks like wood strip finish. It’s much cheaper than wood. Care should be taken when this floor finish is being laid to leave expansion space at the edges to prevent it from bulging up during warm weather.
Mazeras tiles from Mombasa are good in creating the African concept. They are available in uncut natural shapes or cut rectangular shapes in Nairobi.

Wall.

For masonry wall, cement plaster is laid on the surfaces.
The surface is then painted with one undercoat and 3 coats of paint which can be gloss or emulsion. New surface finishes such as Crown Ruff n Tuff, stucco or wall master are available with a wide range of colors and textures.
Ukambani stone finish is also very aesthetically appealing especially around columns or entrance lobbies. A good example is at Kihingo Village in Kitusuru, Nairobi.

In wet areas such as kitchens or bathrooms, ceramic, granito or marble wall tiles are the best.
Wall paper is also a common wall finish in Kenya. This is available in various colors, textures and images.
Wood plastic laminate is also increasingly becoming a common wall finish especially in phone shops and banking halls.

Finishes are abundant and it remains the choice of the home owner to choose the best after shopping from several shops with the architect advising on costs and functionality.

The Shoe House

The Shoe House is located in the town of Hellam, New York; U.S.A.It was completed in 1949 and was owned by Colonel Haines. The owner conceptualized a house that looks exactly like a shoe so as to advertise his shoe manufacturing businesses located in Maryland and Pennsylvania. The house was located along a busy highway where drivers could notice the ‘house billboard’ advertisement.
The building is 5 storeys high and is made of a wooden frame structure covered with a wire mesh and cement stucco interior and exterior. It is a 3 bed roomed house with a kitchen and two bathrooms.

It was used as a weekend motel for a few seasons. It’s now a leading tourist destination and attracts thousands of tourists every year and is used as a museum in commemoration of Colonel Haines.
The architect ingeniously used the shoe motif everywhere he got the chance. The widow grills, doors, exterior fence all have the shoe motif incorporated. The dog house is also modeled to look like a shoe. This design initially aided the client in attracting potential customers to his shoe business and now generates revenue as a museum.
The choice of construction materials used to construct the shoe house was guided by the flexibility. A wooden structural frame is cost-effective and easy to shape .Wire mesh holds the cement plaster firmly and allows for the cement to cover in any profile. Cement stucco finish is also very durable and requires little maintenance save for an occasional paint job.
The actual cost of construction of this house is negligible compared to the current value of the house. This is another marvelous example of how thoughtful designs can greatly increase real estate value cost-effectively.

THE UPSIDE DOWN HOUSE.

This House is located in Szymbark,Poland . The house is owned by Businessman Daniel Czapiewski.
Due to its unique design, it attracts thousands of tourists keen to see this bizarre specter.
The house is a normal conventional double storey wooden house literally inverted up side down with the roof touching the ground.

In this scenario, we can see how an Architect’s decision during the design process can have a profound effect on the commercial viability and profitability of a building-in this case, the design uniqueness attracts thousands of tourists to the site every year. The designer modified the conventional house and put it upside down .

The cost of putting up such a house is relatively the same as for putting up a house the same size and design on the right –side up. The cost-benefit of putting up the house up-side down far outweighs the opposite i.e if the house was conventional. Just imagine-if the house was the right-side up, no tourists would have visited it and the tiny village of Szymbark would not have found its place on the map.

The use of wood for construction eases the flexibility in constructing the house at a few degrees slant. Wood is also light in weight hence easier to suspend and cantilever.From the pictures, notice that the curtains also open upside down to emphasize on the up-side down effect. The suspended cantilevered side also helps to drum in this effect, with the chimney used cleverly to act as support to the ground. Bituminous felt is used as a flat roof on top.

This house will forever be etched in the minds of many and will be true testimony on how creativity can increase a thousand-fold the commercial viability of Real Estate at no extra cost.