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  • Wayfinding as a visual mantra

  • Signage for Education Center Kössen

Title Wayfinding as a visual mantra
Year 2025
Client Gemeinde Kössen Tirol
Architecture pedevilla architects, Bruneck

In close collaboration with pedevilla architects, Atelier Andrea Gassner developed a wayfinding system that renders the semantics and playfulness of the ornament visually tangible. The “cross motif” serves as a design ornament within the architecture and is derived from the region’s historical and traditional craftsmanship. The typographic system was further “stitched” using cross-stitch patterns. The signage oscillates between two- and three-dimensionality. The rough, porous plaster with its warm color tonality is contrasted in the interior spaces by the materialization of the custom-produced letters, numerals, and icons, while simultaneously being accentuated through pearl copper as the primary color. Through lighting and three-dimensional execution, enchanting patterns emerge in the interplay of light and shadow. The large-scale building signage is precisely milled into the wooden slats of the façade cladding. The ornament, as a system of signage, never appears as superfluous decoration but rather as an effective interweaving of narrative and architecture. The theme of the cross and cross-stitch is consistently continued at the entrances and façades.

Wayfinding as a visual mantra
Wayfinding as a visual mantra
Wayfinding as a visual mantra
Wayfinding as a visual mantra
Wayfinding as a visual mantra
Wayfinding as a visual mantra
Wayfinding as a visual mantra
Wayfinding as a visual mantra
Wayfinding as a visual mantra
Wayfinding as a visual mantra
Wayfinding as a visual mantra
Wayfinding as a visual mantra
Wayfinding as a visual mantra
Wayfinding as a visual mantra