Navigating Culture – The art of cultural navigation and wayfinding

Embracing cultural narratives can serve as an antidote to potentially mediocre design and gentrification. They also connect us to where we are and how we got there

Before street signs, lights and Google Maps, we had to rely on more naturally occurring features to guide us. Mountains, rivers, and valleys were plotted to guide us, along with the movements of the sun, stars and seasons to help us traverse often vast expanses of land and ocean. 

These naturally occurring elements have also significantly contributed to our ability to identify and locate places – both physical and cultural. 

The deep-seated attachment that diverse cultures have had to their environments and the ways they move within them has fostered an unbreakable connection between people and place, taking the form of art, dance and of course, storytelling. 

Tracing and retelling these cultural narratives are an increasingly important part of our work, especially as it applies to human-centred design. Most projects have a long way to go when it comes to integrating cultural narrative into their wayfinding. While others are proudly leading the way.

Cultural Narrative: Unveiling Stories and Place

Cultural narrative refers to the stories, myths or legends associated with a particular society to explain its origins, values, and norms. They serve as a bridge between the past and present across generations, a window into the collective psyche of a culture, and offer a sense of continuity and identity. 

They also provide context and perspective to assist others to understand the root of certain traditions, providing often much-needed inroads for greater understanding and tolerance of difference.  

The importance of difference cannot be overstated in our work as wayfinders. From a practical perspective, we use differences in colour, tone and texture to intuitively guide people through spaces. We also recognise that appropriately communicating difference is an increasingly important part of placemaking, especially in the face of gentrification and potentially mediocre design. 

As the founder of Applied Wayfinding, Tim Fendley (2015), argues; ‘The differentiation and distinctiveness peculiar to places will have more, not less, importance in the digital age. Events, unique gatherings and face to face meetings will become more powerful. And local flavour, accent, and attitude will be even more sought after.’ 

‘Events, unique gatherings and face to face meetings will become more powerful. And local flavour, accent, and attitude will be even more sought after.’ Tim Fendley

When seen in this way, the purpose of stories in modern society remains as powerful and potent as ever. They form the basis of our shared experiences and make things understandable to everybody in a particular community or place.

Some places and projects have demonstrated a greater capacity to weave cultural narratives into their urban and built environments than others. One of these places is New Zealand. 

Cultural Narrative Case Study: Dunedin Hospital

At ID-LAB, we don't often liaise or engage directly with cultural consultants. It’s not that we don’t wish to, it’s just not usually part of the scope or our role.

When we are engaged, it is typically because the integration of bilingual texts may impact the wayfinding. For example, destinations may include Aboriginal naming, or narratives linked to First Nations people. They may also incorporate a more prominent artwork or architectural feature with cultural significance. 

Even when cultural narrative is considered, integration often happens late in the design process – to the project’s detriment. To produce meaningful, co-designed outcomes, participation is ideally an interactive process. It starts at the beginning of a project and continues throughout, rather than as simple ticking of the box at the end. 

One project where this was handled in a remarkable way was Dunedin Hospital in New Zealand. From the very beginning, ID-LAB strategists explored the cultural narrative and collaborated with Aukaha, a manawhenua-owned consultancy of cultural narrative advisors and local artists. 

In the hospital, the primary texts are in Te Reo language, with English being secondary. The colour strategy is based on the cultural narrative of the Matau Kareao while the repeating pattern – developed by artists Fyane Robinson and Morgan Mathews-Hale – represents elements of the Matau Kareao. 

The early stages of the Dunedin project presented a truly blank canvas for cultural narrative to play a foundational role in the wayfinding design

All elements are integrated into the entire wayfinding system and strategy. The difference here is that the narrative is integrated into the design. It does not look like a last-minute incorporated attachment. It balances the requirements of the built environment, physical design, supporting technology, and cultural significance to reveal spaces that allow for greater context and perspective to emerge, grow and guide all of us. 

As wayfinders, our role is not only to aid navigation. We help create experiences and spaces that foster deeper connections with the environment and its cultural heritage – but only if we are given the space and time to listen to the stories behind them.