Wayfinding System for CEPT university, Ahmedabad

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Wayfinding System
CEPT University, Ahmedabad

Though the premise of this project was hypothetical, the need assessment in the course of this project showed that the CEPT University did need a Wayfinding System. It became necessary to conceptualize and design a system and not signage because the context had very peculiar issues which needed to be tackled. I have listed a few below :

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2. However, specific studies done on campus showed that is not the case and highlighted the need for a system . The campus houses educational as well as research and consultancy services. People involved in one sphere have no idea what is happening in the other two, including the location of specific departments.

3. There are various departments and consequently scattered blocks. But over time, these blocks are no longer dedicated to specific departments. There has been shuffling dues to changing space demands and addition of new departments. And this happens every year. Again students from one department were unable to guide a visitor to facilities of other departments, though the facilities were housed in the same block.

4. The campus has few defined pathways. Other than those, one has to traverse through ambiguous flat grounds, not knowing where one is heading, or if one should be walking down this undefined patch in the first place!

STUDY PLANS

These are the various plans for a detailed study of the campus. From Left to Right :

a. Need Assessment : Compares the shortest route to the route taken by an actual visitor to find a location

( live experiment done for the study ). The extra distance traveled was approximately 300% of required.

b. Figure Ground : To study built mass pattern

c. Open Space Assessment : To study nature and inter connectivity of hard/soft ground

d. Movement Pattern and Conflict Points Study

THE SOLUTION

The project deals with the issues outlined above in the following twofold manner :

i. Degree of Direction : Respecting the opinion of the students where they do not want people to lose the joy of exploration, the directions are selective. For certain facilities, they direct you to the doorstep, for others it leaves with a generic direction and location.

ii. Flexibility and Adaptability : The system is not complicated because it has to be adaptable and flexible with changing requirements. A few structural detail to ensure flexibility, at the same time discourage vandalism, are shown above. This is reflected also in the choice of materials.

The primary deliverable was a campus map which has been detailed below.

FINAL OUTPUT