Oxford Brookes Univeristy
Europe
View Project
Sadler's Wells
- Location
- London, UK
- Client
- London Legacy Development Corporation (LLDC)
- Services
- Wayfinding
- Sector
- Culture + Civic
- Collaborators
- Architect: O’Donnell + Tuomey
Wayfinding for Sadler’s Wells fourth London venue.
Sadler’s Wells East on the East Bank cultural quarter at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford, is Sadler’s Wells’ fourth venue and a centrepiece of the Mayor of London’s East Bank project. Designed by O’Donnell + Tuomey, the building holds a flexible 550-seat auditorium, six dance studios, an L-shaped public foyer and the facilities of the new Rose Choreographic School and Academy Breakin’ Convention. Benoy was commissioned to develop the wayfinding scheme.
Dates2025
Size
9,000m2
The wayfinding draws on Sadler’s Wells’ own vision for the building, welcoming, connecting, optimistic, daring, transformative and translated it into a design grammar built around movement. Initial concepts explored the relationship between materiality and graphics, with the team developing signage that reads in motion rather than as static information. The system is calibrated to respond to the building’s tactile, brick-led character rather than sit on top of it.
Graphics taken beyond two dimensions
O’Donnell + Tuomey describe the building as a “three-dimensional brick experience.” The wayfinding extends that ambition into the signage itself, taking flat graphics beyond two dimensions to give visitors a more physical, engaging point of contact with the building. Material, depth and shadow do work normally handled by colour and contrast alone.
