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Wayfinding in Higher Education Environments

by | Apr 23, 2024 | Collective Insights

As we develop wayfinding systems and placemaking for education environments, we think about much of our work through the idea of a “campus” framework—interconnected buildings and spaces. The traditional campus for higher education is evolving as students, faculty, and visitors collaborate and interact through digital tools, within transient environments, and across disciplines. Campuses often connect disparate spaces into a unified whole, nesting visitors within an institution—whether they are outside, inside, or navigating in between. We’re exploring how an institution maintains its identity across these spaces, how legible that identity is to visitors, and how it can be leveraged to support the visitor experience through wayfinding and signage. We recently attended the Society for College and University Planning (SCUP) 2024 North Atlantic Regional Conference in Boston and learned how approaches to planning and design are evolving, and how wayfinding can contribute to its transformation.

ARCHITECTURAL INFLUENCE
Architectural interventions are disrupting the homogeneity of campus planning and building, introducing new spatial identities within the campus framework. These interventions can be contemporary additions, renovations, or planning studies, often with careful sensitivity towards maintaining the legacy and history of the institution. We learned how Merge Architects flipped the constraints of pedestrian access and outdated administrative space to suggest a fluid nexus for collaboration, accessibility, and reimagined programming at Northeastern University; or how Pace University in New York City is consolidating their expansive footprint into a vertical campus—rather than lateral—in a dense urban environment. These radical visions for campus planning suggest new paradigms for wayfinding. Historical campus planning is full of precedents for recognizable spatial and structural cues that contribute to intuitive wayfinding: landmarks, quadrangles, density, building palettes; contemporary campuses upset these trends, contributing to a more eclectic environment. How can signage and graphics contribute to creating memorable landmarks within one building, as opposed to many? If the contour of a campus begins to soften, can wayfinding help define it?

CONNECTION THROUGH GRAPHICS
Wayfinding and graphics are a connective tissue between the brand identity of the institution (brand, color, communication) and the spatial identity (architecture, space, programming). As academic communities activate disparate spaces with unique experiential offerings, there’s an opportunity to create connection through graphics, enveloping the identity of the institution into a cohesive whole. Campuses are not monolithic experiences, rather they unfold through a series of touchpoints and interactions. The first might be the institution’s website or promotion off-site, a prospective visitor’s first blush with the brand and graphic vocabulary (color, typography, photography, tone of voice); the next might be the perception of a campus’ environmental boundary and thresholds; and then into the campus itself. Wayfinding connects the off-site and on-site communication, creating recognizable cues for visitors who may be experiencing the campus for the first time. Strategically deploying graphics, color, and typography can not only direct visitors through the campus, but also connect the breadth of their experience and relationship with the institution. The role of campus wayfinding is not relegated to navigation; it bridges the experiential divide between mediums (digital and physical) and can express the spirit of the institution. This might include interpreting the graphic identity through scale, creating branded environments that not only feel familiar to visitors, but inspirational. Wayfinding should speak in different volumes across campuses: consistent and instructive where expected, but also narrative and surprising where not.

INCLUSIVE CAMPUSES
As the design of education environments evolve, it’s important that they do so with an inclusive vision. At SCUP, we learned about inclusive design for STEM learning environments, and how the design of spaces and tools should not be a barrier to entry. Contemporary interventions offer the opportunity to think holistically how spaces can serve all users, rather than working retroactively or prohibitively against budget, planning, and design constraints. Designers can think both economically and proactively, suggesting inclusive solutions for common material and programming exercises that would significantly improve accessibility, without slowing timelines and inflating budgets. We’re familiar with industry best practices for signing for accessibility, deploying tactility, legibility, and consistency to support the user experience. However, as architects and planners design new, inclusive spaces, graphics and wayfinding can become another tool to be used creatively and interpretively. We’re eager to explore new solutions to old problems, interpreting spaces through use of color, typography, and form. STEM spaces might take inspiration from exhibit design, merging didactic and instructive graphics to labs to improve access for professionals with low or impaired vision. Mobility challenges with fixed furniture and programming can be improved by flexible, adaptive spaces; graphics might create consistency in inconsistent environments through signing, labeling, and directing. The future of inclusive design suggests ignoring autonomy in favor of collaboration across disciplines to anticipate the needs of all users.

The new approach to planning and design informs how people navigate and utilize the campus and wayfinding is evolving and along with it. From the aesthetic of the design to the tools in the wayfinding toolkit, we are thinking about these new interactions and how wayfinding will enhance the user experience.

Image Credit: Stephen Speranza