WAYFINDING
PROJECT BY Boffa Miskell Recent Graduates
Kingsland Urban Design Competition Entry
Wayfinding is a tool that provides key orientation information about a place to the public. Good wayfinding is signage that strips out the unnecessary layers of information to create a diagram that allows decision making to occur. It must do an effective job to help people get from A to B, point out important infrastructure and warn users of danger. Therefore its function is often rigid and limited in scope. However, this offers an opportunity to produce a design which is both functional and engaging. By introducing a more fluid, temporal wayfinding device a number of new opportunities can open up, expressing the changing dynamics of the surrounding area.
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As part of the Kingsland Urban Design Competition this approach to wayfinding was investigated on a corner site bordering the Historic Trinity Church at the intersection of New North and Sandringham Roads. This site is an important gateway to Kinglsand for people from Grey Lynn, Eden Terrace and Mt Eden and also captures the surge of fans walking to and from Eden Park as well as the day to day flows of residents and consumers.
On this site, Kingsland and its key infrastructural elements are mapped out (main roads, rail line, station, stadium and public restrooms) as a simple base diagram on the ground plane. With the addition of this wayfinding diagram the footpath is transformed into a canvas for the local retailers and community to populate with events and advertisements through temporary and permanent notices on the ground. Local business events are advertised beside the map relative to the location of the event. By using a template circle and removable substance, such as chalk, a constantly updatable and changing wayfinding device is produced. As events, specials, logos and messages build up, an image of the social and cultural landscape is expressed, spatially aiding people towards great places that could otherwise be hard to find.
This intervention generates activity and encourages community ownership and collaboration while also celebrating the quirky character of Kingsland through graphics and colour. This engagement with the site helps to create a local sense of community. The corner becomes a notice board for the area revealing the evolving cultural, social and commercial layers of the suburb, allowing them to be assessed and compared.
This wayfinding device helps to create a space that becomes a destination, a place to start when exploring Kingsland and where the business and the social elements are brought together as an interactive meeting place at the corner. With minimal intervention the design is handed over to the local community who can shape and create the outcome as they see fit, generating a result that is unique to them.
