Universities are hives of new ideas, discoveries and advancements. But that brings an inevitably complex built environment, as Guy Warren, design director at wayfinding specialist Placemarque, explains. As we approach the opening of the University of Cambridge's newest physics departmental building, the Ray Dolby Centre, he explores how wayfinding can help users navigate complex spaces.
The discoveries that have come out of the University of Cambridge's Cavendish Laboratory have changed our world.
From the splitting of the atom to discoveries of DNA and electromagnetism, the university's physics department is steeped in history.
It has twice outgrown its laboratory and is in the process of rehousing the entire department at Cambridge West to accommodate the biggest (and potentially explosive) experiments.
Opening mid-2025, the Ray Dolby Centre (named after one of the department's alumni and benefactors) will facilitate the next generation of scientists having an impact on the way we'll live tomorrow.
Being a hub of research presents its own challenges. While educational institutions solve problems all the time, they face a relatively simple one themselves. Getting lost.
But while it's a simple problem, it's difficult to solve.
Placemarque has been working with universities and academies for more than 20 years, helping to improve navigation across extensive environments. While each is unique in its own way, there are common traits and the Ray Dolby Centre is no exception.
They're inherently busy places, with innumerable different faculties, departments and destinations to navigate. They comprise a mixture of public and restricted access spaces, with a melting pot of interfacing students and researchers. That brings the potential for confusion, but also the opportunity for new encounters and discoveries, with communal spaces becoming a canvas for idea exchange across different disciplines. With both, wayfinding interventions can make a huge difference.
Foremost in the ˜wayfinding for beginners' manual is making complicated spaces easier to navigate.
The Ray Dolby Centre project is significant in scale for more reasons than one. Beyond the size of the building itself, necessitated by the unique and often large-scale experiments being carried out inside (it reaches a gargantuan 33,000sqm internal floor areas), the extensive number of uses it houses is also impressive.
Some areas are open to the public (lecture theatres, learning areas and the café) while others have restricted access. Getting to grips with the different labs, their functions and the precise terminology required has been quite a puzzle to work out.
To reduce the number of signs required and to build users' understanding of the building layout, we developed a system that uses simple floor plan diagrams to illustrate routes to key spaces.
The inherent risk is that individuals can too easily become siloed in their own area of expertise, but the opportunity for innovation through cross-sector collaboration is immense. The discovery of penicillin wouldn't have happened if microbiologist Fleming hadn't collaborated with chemists and pathologists to turn it from a laboratory curiosity into a lifesaving drug.
So, how can wayfinding create opportunities for cross fertilisation?
At the University of Bedfordshire, we devised a series of coordinated graphic interventions that not only helped to demarcate areas but also created engaging welcome spaces that encourage spontaneous interactions across fields of expertise.
These social areas have become much more important since the pandemic. With remote working now commonplace, people travel to hubs less often. But when they do, it's to collaborate. Universities must embrace and capitalise on this by setting aside less space for academics' offices and devoting more flexible areas for interacting and sharing ideas.
Underlying both the challenges and the opportunities of wayfinding in educational settings, one fundamental requirement is key “ the user must know that they're there. And that's particularly important on city centre campuses that are interspersed with other uses.
What clues and signals can help a student or visitor know that they're on campus?
We've been working with Manchester Metropolitan University's estate team while the university undergoes a significant investment programme. Nestle don the southern flank of Manchester's city centre, we delivered a coherent internal and external wayfinding strategy to help movement across its campuses.
We devised a signage masterplan that fed into the estate works, setting rules for how all signage should look, bringing consistency and recognition to improve navigation. This included identifying and naming external pocket parks to create a logical route between the university's Birley and All Saints campuses. Once this wide-ranging project is complete, whatever Manchester Met building you walk into, or wherever you are on the campus, you'll be able to see the university's brand shine through, and know you've arrived.
Unique scientific experiments require distinctive design solutions. When the Ray Dolby Centre opens, it will continue the University of Cambridge's legacy of pushing the boundaries of physics and maintain its position at the vanguard of scientific advancements. For us, it has pushed on our own creativity in wayfinding. In fact, every educational estate we work on requires a unique wayfinding solution, and we certainly relished the challenge at the Ray Dolby Centre.
