Helping students to find their way in new school

The challenge

Whangārei Boys’ High was embarking on the biggest project in its history – building a new purpose built school. With a growing school population and the old buildings no longer fit for purpose they were able to start from scratch with a totally new build on a separate part of the school grounds.

The solution

To help students and visitors find their way around the new space, bigfish worked with the school and architects to develop a design for their wayfinding system. Large corten steel identification pillars lead people towards each building and from there, smaller signs that are affixed to the building to direct users to the classrooms and facilities. Bigfish also designed the patterns used for internal window treatments.

The large corten signs were fabricated in Whangārei by Culham Engineering who have a long established relationship with the school supporting its trades academy and employing many school leavers over the years.