ARCHITECTURAL | 113
The term Way Finding does not only mean
“how to find your way” but it contains a
broader and complex meaning... it’s about
cities, spaces to live in, in which we move
and orientate ourselves every day.
Kevin Lynch, an American city planner
and architect, coined this term in 1960 in
his book “The Image of the City “where
he focused the attention on “urban
signs” such as streets or house numbers
understood as ways to organize spaces,
constructed or not, and how to equip
them to make them readable and visible,
by helping us to orientate ourselves.
The Way Finding or orientation lighting
also includes a lot of other elements, such
as street furnishing, coatings, green areas,
signage lighting, light.
To focus light on paths, be they driveways,
sidewalks or staircases, is certainly an
instrument that helps space to become
a “friend”, able to dialogue with us and
acquiring at the same time “cognition
of space” that surrounds us. Orientation
lighting furthermore supports perception
through the creation of illuminating dots
and lines, for example, in passages and on
the stairs.
