Architectural Wayfinding Design as a Means of Communication in Environmental Perception

From prehistoric times, Signage was a means of visual communication helping people reaching out different environments (internal or external). Long before paper's invention, humans made marks on objects, such as cave walls, in the surrounding environment, for their communication. As cities grew and mobility increased, making the built environment more complex, people requirements for better information concerning spatial perception and navigation, also grew. Thus, the necessity of proactive, systematically planned, visual unified signage and wayfinding programs have been emerged. Wayfinding is how people get from one location to another, including their information-gathering and decision-making processes for orientation and movement through space. Wayfinding design builds on research in cognition and environmental psychology to design built spaces and products that facilitate the movement of people through urban settings and individual buildings. Despite its demonstrated importance to building use, costs, and safety, wayfinding receives less than its due in planning, research and building evaluation. The aim of this study is to provide a "clear" reading of the environmental space and city's routes to the users, through architectural wayfindig design. Also, architectural wayfinding design addresses built components, including spatial planning, articulation of form-giving features, circulation systems and environmental communication.