Image Credit : Photographer: Simon Callaghan
Project Overview
Borough Yards is a recently opened mixed-use development comprising social, cultural, retail and workspaces on the western edge of foodie destination Borough Market in London’s Southwark. Incorporating existing buildings, alongside newly constructed spaces, it blends cathedral like railway arches, public squares, and secluded shopping ‘streets’. f.r.a. were appointed to design the wayfinding and placemaking for Borough Yards. Through a collaborative process with the client’s team, f.r.a. have blurred the lines between wayfinding, storytelling, and art. It’s a process f.r.a. came to call ‘wanderfinding’ throughout the project.
Project Commissioner
Project Creator
Team
Wesley Meyer Creative Director
Jamie Trippier Projects Director
Project Architect: SPPARC
Development Managers: Queensberry
Neon fabricator: Electro Signs
Signage fabricator: Goodwin & Goodwin
Project Brief
f.r.a. were appointed to design the wayfinding and placemaking for Borough Yards. The brief started to simply provide wayfinding for the development. But this quickly evolved into something that felt genuinely new and exciting. The client, developers MARK, set collaboration at the core of the design process. The vision was to restore and rejuvenate an historic area that had been locked away for more than half a century, to weave together the historic fabric with contemporary architecture and design for the public to enjoy again, discover and dwell.
Working with the whole project team, including architects SPPARC, f.r.a. set to blur the lines of wayfinding, storytelling, and art, taking inspiration from the chequered history of the area, and the beautiful raw brickwork central to the development.
Project Innovation/Need
The wayfinding at Borough Yards is about more than finding what you’re looking for. f.r.a. have named it ‘wanderfinding’, which is about encouraging people to discover and explore the site in a non-linear manner. It’s about more than navigation; it’s about experience, engagement and finding joy.
A series of design interventions underpin the “wanderfinding” at Borough Yards from the giant neon art piece “a clock” that recounts the diverse characters who historically called Southwark home, from judges and Lords to revellers and pickpockets. Wall murals and oversized ghost signs all help to blend the new and historic components of the site. Tenant directories are simple fly posters applied directly to the brickwork, that not only reflect the Borough Yards brand but allow for rapid and economical updates to the signs addressing a very real design challenge for post-pandemic wayfinding.
To create intrigue and engagement, there are several smaller ‘hidden’ designs that can be discovered and shared over time. These included reusing some existing industrial brackets on site to become whimsical ‘gargoyles’; a sign featuring an actual human tooth, one of the project managers’ bikes being put 3 metres in the air, an interactive bike bell wall and a very obscure ‘The Simpsons’ reference.
Design Challenge
A key challenge of the scheme was the complexity of the large 7.5m x 5.6m neon artwork at the main Soap Yard entrance to Borough Yards. For the design to become a reality we needed to work with the architect to redesign the whole facade of the building to accommodate the two hundred plus exposed cables that power the sign in addition to working with almost every known trade to get it installed. We overcame all this with harmonious collaboration and utilising our in-house project management team.
Furthermore, we needed to engage with Southwark Council and the local neighbourhood associations to gather support and gain planning permission for a work of this scale.
Effectiveness
Our intention at Borough Yards was to focus on people’s sense of discovery, engagement, wonder and joy, melting the wayfinding into “wanderfinding” through the site’s rich, often debauched, history and today’s contemporary lifestyle.
Since the site has opened, people are discovering the “hidden” designs and sharing the interventions on social media. People have given the “bracket faces” names and even questioned if the designs are part of the master plan, all adding to the overall identity of the project.
Adding to the success of the project, Borough Yards won Best Urban Project of the Year in the MIPIM 2022 Awards
Graphic Design - Environmental
This award celebrates creativity and innovation in the intersection of communication design and the built environment, and is concerned with the visual aspects of wayfinding, communication identity and brands, information design and shaping the idea of place. Consideration given to clarity of communication and the matching of information style to audience.
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