Universiteit Antwerpen (The University of Antwerp) is with about 20,000 students, the third largest university in Flanders, the Dutch speaking part of Belgium. The university's roots go back to the Saint-Ignatius School for Higher Education in Commerce founded by the Jesuit in 1852, making it one of the first European business schools to offer formal university degrees.

It has nine campuses located all over the city of Antwerp, from the historic city centre to the green belt to the south of the city. The central building of the University of Antwerp’s Stadscampus, the wonderful 16th-century Hof van Liere and the adjacent historical premises, was built in 1516 for the then Mayor of Antwerp, Aert van Liere. The city had just entered its golden age, as this exquisite building in the Brabantine Gothic style testifies.

Although we were the highest bidder, based on our experience and detailed Plan of Approach, ID-LAB was selected from 6 parties to develop a new wayfinding system for the university. The system had to combine functionality with a strong feeling of identity and the design had to work in the 16th century buildings as well as in the hyper-modern ones on the outer campuses.

We started the project by immersing our project team in the university. We spent a full week in Antwerp, auditing several campuses, observing student navigational behaviour and workshopping ideas and our observations with the university’s project team and stakeholders - an approach well received.

The information strategy was tested on several campuses before the design was started. We are now finalising the manual and assisting the uni with their implementation plan.