Tempelhof Projekt

Orientation System Outdoor Area

With a to­tal area of 300,000 sqm, the listed Air­port Tem­pel­hof build­ing is still one of the largest build­ings in the world. Since it has been closed to air traf­fic in 2009, the build­ing is hous­ing of­fices and event spaces. In 2013, Moni­teurs drew up the con­cept for an over­ar­ch­ing guid­ance and ori­en­ta­tion sys­tem for the ex­te­rior, in­clud­ing the air­field. The plan­ning for the air­port build­ing was im­ple­mented in 2016. The sign fam­ily is sim­ple and ro­bust and in­te­grates well into the pub­lic space. The ex­tremely com­plex ter­rain and ac­cess to it were clearly struc­tured and in­for­ma­tion hi­er­ar­chies were de­vel­oped.

Air­port Tem­pel­hof
Wayfind­ing Sys­tem

Berlin 2016

Client

Tem­pel­hof Pro­jekt GmbH on be­half of the State of Berlin

Scope of Work
Com­pre­hen­sive con­cept for the ex­te­rior of the for­mer air­port build­ing and the air­field

Plan­ning and Im­ple­men­ta­tion

To­tal area around the air­port build­ing

Build­ing Size

300,000 sqm

Pho­tos

Ste­fan Schilling

Funded by

Joint Agree­ment for “Verbesserung der re­gionalen Wirtschaftsstruk­tur” (GRW) and the State of Berlin
In such a large area it is es­pe­cially im­por­tant to know where you are – here clearly marked with a red ar­row.
Clas­si­fi­ca­tion of des­ti­na­tion points through colour: pub­lic trans­port con­nec­tions are in­cluded in the con­cept.
Mono­chrome ten­ant lo­gos help cre­ate a uni­form look and feel. The mod­u­lar struc­ture al­lows for adding and re­plac­ing ten­ants eas­ily.
In­for­ma­tion ar­chi­tec­ture: The build­ing’s ax­ial di­vi­sion into wing 1 and wing 2 are clearly com­mu­ni­cated. The his­toric build­ing names such as Turm 7 or Kopf­bau Ost have been kept in or­der to meet con­ser­va­tion re­quire­ments. Fur­ther­more, this means that the new wayfind­ing sys­tem re­mains com­pat­i­ble with ex­ist­ing plan­ning doc­u­ments.
Ac­ces­si­bil­ity was a main fac­tor. Overview maps are al­ways sup­ple­mented with tac­tile maps, which are pro­duced with Braille and raised let­ter­ing (ex­e­cuted by Meng). The desks are set up to be eas­ily ap­proached by wheel­chair users and set at an an­gle that makes it com­fort­able to reach.
Modular signage system
The sign system is based on a modular approach. Depending on the content requirements a sign type is selected and the individual content modules are arranged within it. This has the advantage that individual modules can be exchanged when there are changes in labelling (e.g., changing tenants), new users or damage. In this way, the system remains flexible and cost-effective while maintaining the same appearance.