OUTPUT

London-based Hat-Trick Design has commented on a signage and wayfinding scheme it is undertaking for Stockwell Park and Robsart Village, a south London housing estate. The initiative, which is projected to be completed over the next two years, was commissioned by Network Housing Group in 2009.

Gareth Howat, Hat-Trick Design's creative director, comments: "We decided against using the graphics to delineate areas, as the public art element should be separate from wayfinding. Instead, the tiles will be mixed and found across the estates, providing 'a visual identity for the area'."

The site covers some 194 hectares (1940,000sq m) and its wayfinding overhaul is part of the 'first major refurbishment of the estate since it was built in the 1970s', according to Hat-Trick. Six designers and artists have been selected by Hat-Trick to deliver graphics for the revamp. Local architecture, history and people provided the inspiration for the 35 ideas, which are to be printed on decorative tiles.

Also working on the signage overhaul are Mesh Partnership landscape architecture firm and BPTW Architects. Howat notes that a possible end goal of the project is to incorporate tiled patterns into public seating and metal screens, adding that the designers 'have tried to come up with a really individual system'.