Canteen Prison Architect Guide

Last update: 25 May 2016

Icon	Minimum size	Required objects
	No limit	Serving Table

The Canteen should be the largest room in the prison. Despite the fact that it doesn't have any size limits, you should dedicate a considerable amount of space for it, mainly because of the fact that during the meal time (see: Order of the day) all the prisoners, as one man, will come here to eat. Managing a group of dozens of hungry prisoners isn't easy.

Each one of them needs to have easy access to food and a place to put his plate and sit down to eat. That means that the canteen needs not only a Serving Table but also Benches and Tables. See the above screenshot for reference.

 

One serving table is enough to feed almost 60 prisoners, however you should place more of them as they're very cheap. The key elements here are benches and common tables, as they determine the amount of prisoners who can have a meal (you should have at least as many places as there are prisoners). If prisoners wait too long for a place to be freed by their fellow-convicts, they will become increasingly irritated and can lead to a fight. That's why you should make sure that each table has a bench (screen above) and that there's as much of them as possible.

In the previous versions of the game, having benches by the tables wasn't required for this room to function properly.

The optimum size of a canteen is 11x9 squares (10x9 also works fine). Such proportions let you place 4 serving tables, 20 benches and 20 tables (therefore they let you feed 80 prisoners at a time). Curiously, you don't have to leave free space between tables or other objects, as characters can move "above" them (which lets you save money and space). Such a configuration can be found in the above screenshot.

In case the size of the canteen proves to be insufficient, you can build an additional storey and add more tables and benches. The room should be placed possibly close to the kitchen, so that the cooks don't have to run too much.