LABOR:leitsysteme

A bright office; four people are working together at a table covered with lots of papers, pens and colourful sticky notes. In the background, a large architectural plan hangs on the wall, covered with yellow and pink sticky notes. Everyone looks focused, as if they were planning a project or brainstorming ideas.

In public places, everyone should be able to find their way around, shouldn’t they? Unfortunately, this is not usually the case: wayfinding systems are often implemented solely through visual means and exclude people with different types of disability.

The collaborative project “LABOR:leitsysteme”, run by Un-Label, the Cologne University of Applied Sciences (TH Köln) and the Orangerie Theatre, aims to change this. A multisensory wayfinding system for the Orangerie Theatre site is set to ensure that as many people as possible can find their way around with ease in future. On 16 June, the students will present their prototypes of the wayfinding systems at the Orangerie Theatre. Anyone interested is warmly invited to attend the presentation.

About the LAB

Several people in a conference room are working together on a large wall covered with plans, photos, and colorful sticky notes. At the front is a large table with a roll of paper laid out on it, along with photos, scraps of paper, pens, and cups. One person is sitting at the table sticking something down, others are standing by the wall arranging notes, and one person is taking a photo of the scene.

There are many small photos of buildings, paths, doors, and entrances on the table. In the upper left corner are large rolls of blue and yellow polka-dot wrapping paper. At the bottom are many colorful sticky notes in blue and pink with handwritten text in German. On the right are pens in a cup and a roll of tape.

Working in four teams, students on the Integrated Design and Code & Context degree programmes at TH Köln are developing prototypes, supported by Access experts with disability perspectives from Un-Label and teaching staff from TH Köln. These prototypes go far beyond traditional signage: visual, tactile and auditory elements combine to form a wayfinding system that appeals to different sensory perceptions and takes users’ needs into account.

“Working with people with disabilities as experts in accessibility and perception has implications not only for making design practice more inclusive, but also for the university itself.”

Lasse Scherffig

Professor at TH Köln

The results will not be shelved: the prototypes will form the basis of a concrete funding application for the actual implementation of a guidance system at the Orangerie Theatre. This has been made possible by long-standing partnerships: Un-Label, the Technical University of Cologne, the Orangerie Theatre and the Kämpgen Foundation have been working closely together for years. The project is one of the first of its kind in Germany: a real-world laboratory in which university teaching, disability expertise and theatre operations directly interlink, drawing on their respective knowledge. The model developed can be adapted for use in other cultural venues and is intended to serve as a blueprint for inclusive wayfinding systems in the cultural sector. The project phase is made possible by the Kämpgen Foundation as part of an active partnership in which the resources of all participants complement one another synergistically, and serves as a feasibility study for subsequent implementation. It is a model of effective civil society collaboration that moves beyond traditional funding logic.

‘The aim is to ensure that the diversity of human abilities is consistently taken into account as a resource in the design of technology.’

Laura Popplow

Professor at TH Köln