Fez · 2024
Finding your way through a thousand-year library
A wayfinding system for a library that grew room by room for centuries: signs, maps and reading-room numbering in Arabic and French.
The challenge
Readers got lost between courtyards added over many centuries, and the existing signs spoke only to staff. Nothing could be fixed to the historic tile.
Our approach
- Walked every route with readers and staff, and numbered rooms by courtyard so a room number tells you where it is.
- Designed free-standing signs in brass and cedar that touch the floor, never the walls.
- Set every sign in Arabic first and French second, with the same grid so both read at a glance.
The outcome
New readers find the manuscripts room on their first visit, and staff stopped printing paper maps.