Our Thinking: Architect as wayfinder

As a trained architect, I have developed a good understanding of space, including its constraints and opportunities. 

I honed my architectural knowledge around seven overarching principles – balance, rhythm, emphasis, proportion and scale, movement, contrast, and unity – that guide this area of expertise. 

Throughout my time as an architect, my own thinking and skills matured by working on innumerable commercial, residential and community projects. I knew how to make a space look beautiful and serve its purpose for the user. But I was also interested in making the space easier to navigate, by using environmental cues recognised on a subconscious level, and creating a seamless flow of movement.

As it would turn out, this inclination to priortise both aesthetics along with functionality when articulating a space would lead me to a slightly different career path – that of the wayfinding consultant. 

In many ways, architects and wayfinding consultants are working towards the same goal: to create a space that is easy and welcoming for everyone who enters it. However, in my time working in both fields, I can see how each goes about achieving this in different ways. 

Architects determine  how a space is weighted for balance, how patterns and gradients create rhythm and movement, how contrasts spark intrigue, and how consistency inspires feelings of calm. 

Wayfinders, at least those at ID-LAB, also focus on all these design elements throughout every stage of preparing a wayfinding solution. The main difference between wayfinders and architects is that we look at all journeys, and cross journeys, more holistically. We consider all the processes and touch points with the organisation’s users and what they need to go through to get where they need to be. 

At ID-LAB, we’re always working to make every space more functional and responsive. As we’ve seen on numerous occasions, the more intuitive a space is, the easier it is to navigate, and the less we need to explain to the user. Fewer people get lost. Accessible routes are established and clear. A sense of trust is established between the user and the space. Staff are less likely to get aggravated working in a functional environment. Visitors have a positive association with the space, and by extension, the organisation it houses. 

But we can’t achieve this ideal scenario on our own. As wayfinders, it’s critical for us to have architects on our side as early collaborators. We need the architecture to guide us and our wayfinding solution, but we also need to influence a space early in the process. The less we have to work around a hidden lift core or reception desk, the more integrated and intuitive our solution can be. 

Ultimately, the earlier wayfinding can be talked about in a project, the better outcome will be for the user. Ideally, both wayfinder and architect would sit down early on at the Master Plan stage and make decisions collaboratively about a building that hasn’t yet been built. 

As someone who has worked as both wayfinder and architect, I recognise that coming to this place of early collaboration isn’t always easy. But it is critical if we wish to continue to work together to achieve the same goal: spaces that welcome every user and allow them to find their way with ease.