f.r.a. curates Wanderfinding at Borough Yards, London.

Borough Yards is a new dining, shopping, and cultural destination in the medieval heart of London’s Southwark, adjacent to the vibrant, world-famous food destination of Borough Market.

The mixed-use development blends cathedral-like railway arches, public squares, and secluded shopping streets and counts Everyman Cinema, Barrafina and The Office Group amongst its occupants.

Shrewsbury based design studio, f.r.a. were appointed by developers MARK with a brief to simply provide wayfinding for the whole development. But, as Wesley Meyer, creative director of f.r.a. says “this quickly evolved into something that felt genuinely new and exciting”.

Through a collaborative process with the architects SPPARC and MARK, f.r.a. set out to blur the lines of wayfinding, storytelling, and art. “The core approach to the design was to melt the site back into the fabric of Southwark. Each of the five entrances are treated as individual experiences which express the site’s rich history and contemporary lifestyle with an added touch of the neighbourhood’s signature wit and grit”, says Meyer.

Entering Soap Yard, the principal entrance to Borough Yards, visitors are greeted by a large 7m x 5.6m work of neon art wrapped across two walls. This ‘clock’ recounts the diverse characters who historically called Southwark home, from judges and Lords to revellers and pickpockets. f.r.a. worked with the architects to redesign the building facade to accommodate the complex artwork which hosts one hundred and thirteen neon words, two hundred and thirteen metres of glass, and two hundred and twenty cables to power the installation.

“It’s a bold and intriguing Instagram moment for visitors. But we know that eventually the neon will get damaged by a pigeon, a stone, a passing train or go on the blink over time, and we had anticipated these scenarios beforehand, planning for easy access and maintenance works. It’s an assessment process aimed at maximising whole-life value in the face of the unpredictable”, said Jamie Trippier, Project Director at f.r.a.

Southwark council and local neighbourhood associations had been engaged to gather support and gain planning permission for a work of such scale.

Wall murals, and oversized ghost signs, some at four-storeys high, are used throughout the development. These placemaking interventions aid the wayfinding and help to blend the new and historic components of the site. Wayfinding signage for tenants at Borough Yards are simple fly paper posters applied directly to the brickwork on site. This design is intended to be tactile, accentuating the site’s signature brick material. The approach reflects the Borough Yards brand and allows for rapid and economical updates to the directory signs, addressing a very real design challenge for post pandemic wayfinding.

“The wayfinding at Borough Yards is about more than finding what you’re looking for. We have named it ‘wanderfinding’, which is about encouraging people to discover and explore the site in a non-linear manner. It’s about more than navigation; it’s about experience, engagement and finding joy”, explains Meyer.

The site features several smaller ‘hidden’ designs that can be discovered and shared over time. These included reusing some existing industrial brackets on site to become whimsical ‘gargoyles’; a sign featuring an actual human tooth, one of the project managers’ bikes being put 3 metres in the air, an interactive bike bell wall and a very obscure ‘The Simpsons’ reference.

Borough Yards was this year awarded MIPIM’s Best Urban Project and the Planning Awards Design Excellence category.