Tast 2 Wayfinding design: Umeda Clinic, Tokyo and Katta Hospital,Tokyo

The environment sign system of Umeda Clinic and Katta Hospital were designed by Kenya Hara, a Japanese designer in 1996 and 2002.

Umeda Clinic, Tokyo

The Umeda Clinic in Tokyo is a hospital specializing in obstetrics and gynecology.
The most distinguishing characteristic of the design is the material: cotton cloth. First of all, because the childbearing is not an illness and the maternity hospital should not give the impression like other polyclinic hospital. The designers aimed to create a soft, gentle feelings rather than a cold and tension atmosphere. Another important element is the signage is washable. This kind of design conveys to both patients and visitors as: We choose the white cotton cloth specially because we always do the cleaning. Our hospital is the cleanest one. For the women who spend time before and during childbirth, it dose shows a token of respect and understanding. Thirdly, using cotton cloth as the basic design material allows people to feel the material as to feel how gentle the hospital is.











Each washable sign has two backups and allows for about 400 times launderings. This washable signage will maintain its cleanliness for ten years.


Katta Hospital,Tokyo









The innovative design of the wayfinding system in Katta Hospital is the signs with large arrows and clear Japanese text are inlaid on the floor as well as on the wall. It solved a problem as the painting characters on the floor would probably peel off because the friction of footwear.




The wayshowing arrows not only show a direction but also tell the distance. The length of the arrow stem indicates the distance to the target. An arrow outside a door has no stem at all.









While the large number of the hospitals avoid red colour, most of the signs in Umeda Clinic are in red. It is not a bad idea for showing cleanliness and attention through the hospital.

A red cross with inlaid white directional signs marks the intersection of the building stand out very well, nobody will ignore the signage.





Signage in hospitals always serves a broad constituency including patients, visitors and staff. These groups have different needs and different wayfinding abilities. Both the two hospitals wayfinding design satisfy the need of customers and achieve hospital’s purpose.

References:

Per Mollerup (2005) Wayshowing: A guide to environmental signage principles&practices

Craig M.Berger (2005) Wayfinding: Designing and Implementing Graphic Navigational Systems

http://www.ndc.co.jp/hara/home_e/index.html