72 Hours Wayfinding in 3 Airports & 2 Train Stations

September 13, 2016

Hi everyone! For those of you have read my introduction on the Onah Jung Blog, you will know that I am an undergraduate student studying architecture at the University of Waterloo. In part of this degree for our 4th year, we go to Rome for a semester to study. I hope you all will look forward to this study abroad experience as much as I am as I will be sure to be documenting more for the coming weeks! This will be the premiere-introducing the beginning leg of my trip!

I get lost a lot. It is not an understatement to say that way finding components are imperative to me getting to my destination. Throw in international destinations and it becomes a part of my survival. There would literally be no way I (or maybe anyone?) getting to places without architecture hinting at how to navigate its spaces. As instinctual as architecture hopes to be, sometimes it’s not natural, it’s, in fact sometimes around the corner, up the stairs, a left, a straight 50m, another lift, down another set of stairs and a sharp right.

Recently I planned my own trip to visit Lund, Sweden, where I had previously done my school exchange, to visit some friends. To get there is actually through Copenhagen airport in Denmark.

Embarking on my first destination, I began to trek to YYZ, Toronto’s closet international airhub in Mississauga– It would be safe to say that this would be the easiest part of my adventure. I get dropped off and soon check in, easily navigating through the familiarity of airline logos and arrows on the floor.

8 hours later, I arrive to Copenhagen airport. While I have been here before, I still look for signs that indicate directions to exits, baggage claims and train stations. Navigating this airport was surprisingly stress-free, everything is labelled and directed. Still, I travel through countless corridors and gates before descending on lifts to the airport’s train station to other destinations.

14550748195_111c0bc2d1_k — Photo courtesy of Tuija

Finally! I get to Lund Central Station, which is pictured in the feature image. I arrive at a relatively early hour, hence the lack of people. The colours of stairways are purely decorative. Their own colours don’t differentiate different passages- which could have been helpful! (But in the end they all lead to the same place anyways- Lund is a small city)

img_20160911_083850 — A good example of wayfinding elements – **obvious** floor indications and wall directions

I spend a couple of days in Sweden, and before I know I am back in Copenhagen, Denmark, on my way to Italy’s FCO Rome airport. Arriving for the first time in this airport and to avoid getting lost, I follow the basic process of way finding which is the following:

I orient myself to the desired destination (in this case-buses)

I decide on a route based on signs or flow of traffic.

I observe the path, to make sure I’m not headed somewhere else.

Once I reach the destination, I confirm that it is where I want to be.

My final destination until my accommodation is in Trastevere, Rome. I somehow have made it through 3 airports, Toronto YYZ, Copenhagen CPH, and Italy FCO, and 2 train stations! Be sure to check back next week to read more about my Italy trip next week on “La Dolce Vita-Student version”!