Floor plans linearized to reflect experience walking from elevator.
Heart of display systems outside of elevators and labs.
Explained through animation “unrolling” a slice through a 3D model.
Forms a coherant map of interior spaces — a backdrop for context sensitive info displays.
Draws from each lab’s blog posts and posted photos to provide an up to date but mediated snapshot of what’s new. (tag clouds, etc.)
Info is tailored to each screen’s audience: unknown viewers get indication of room number ranges, known residents get more info about places where they spend less time.
Subtle changes — helpful without being creepy.

I mainly thought about how different people could use a central digital map in E14's first floor lobby (typical place) in conjunction with the auxiliary waypoint maps located on each floor (elevators, lab entrances, intersections) -- my Andromeda Strain display.

I considered four different groups of people and how they would use the same wayfinding system.

1. Scheduled Groups
   already have itineraries, but may not know building or people
2. Delivery Guys
   already have name or room#, doesn't want to explore
3. Unscheduled Visitors
   want common destinations (admin, bathroom, lab)
   may know name or room #
4. Building Occupants
   1. faculty/students
      where is staff, equip., talk, avail. room? Who has special skills?
   2. staff
      who is in controlled space (fablab), where are faculty/students?
   3. facilities/security
      who is in the building? special room requests?

The proposed wayfinding system is more of a connection-revealing system. The major aim of the system is to use the screens placed throughout E14/E15 to make the users of all of the spaces within feel more connected to the various activities and ideas percolating throughout.

All four modes are relatively rough ideas at the moment, and it may be that all of these cannot be developed equally towards the final proposal. However, the modes all try to investigate spatial activity and collect useful information in an effort to rethink the potential of flexible spaces within a static architecture.

Screens guide individuals to places/things/people of interest.

It's somewhere between a QR code "building" and a custom app similar to Photosynth. But where it is in that spectrum I haven't really figured out yet.

Consider a digital wayfinding system for E14 or the E14/E15 complex. The system should address the needs of the many different users of the building - staff, researchers, students, guests. Think about how each constituency makes use of the space and how that influences your design. The system should do all of the things that any good system does: clarify the arrangement of spaces within the building and guide people to the places they want to go. In addition, you can think about new functions - locating friends, encouraging collaboration, connecting the real and the virtual, providing greater openness and transparency, etc. Your design should also speak to the kind of place that the Media Lab is (or wants to be).

Good - Pedestrian Wayfinding from Hiromura Masaaki for the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation

Bad - Edward Burtynsky's photographs of factories in Cankun, Xiamen, China

Ugly - Failblog

Negative example:
Steelcase Inc. headquarters.
Grand Rapids, MI.
Designer unknown.

The space was a demonstration of Steelcase's new focus on the concept of dynamic-use office space. All space dividers were modular, enabling easy reconfiguration of the floor plan to suit the needs of people. However, their signage was not only badly lighted, information-starved, and visually inaccessible, it was static and incongruous with the activity needs of the people and visitors who will inhabit that space.

Positive example:
Museum of Cinematography (La Cinémathèque française).
Bercy, Paris/France.
Design by Intégral (Ruedi Baur et associés).

Projected guidance system designed with consideration of the architectural form and material of the building, and complementing the informational content of the space. (In addition, the projections are positioned in such a way that visitors can interact with it.)

GOOD EXAMPLE: New England Holocaust Memorial

The memorial is six glass stacks. The number six represents the six million Jews killed and the six main concentration camps. The six glass towers have lower sections where six million numbers are etched into the glass in an orderly pattern, reminiscent of Nazi tattoos. Personal statements by Holocaust survivors are inscribed over the numbers at the base of the glass towers. People walk through the glass stacks as they visit the memorial. As they do so, they see their reflection in the glass as well as the city surroundings. The first and last word a memorial visitor encounters is "remember" written in English, Hebrew, and Yiddish. Notably, the memorial is on the Freedom Trail.

It's a good example because the typographic information enriches an already beautiful architectural element with meaning and symbolism.

BAD EXAMPLE: New York City Subway Stations