Member-only story
Wayfinding in a Life-Sized City
In a life-sized city, people get around with visual clues instead of street names and house numbers.
“ Hi… excuse me… can you help me find this address?”
An oft-used phrase for visitors in a foreign city, albeit less these days with the rise of smartphones and google maps. A few years ago I met up with an American visitor here in Copenhagen. When we were done, he showed me an address for his next meeting and asked how to get there on foot. I suggested he head down the street to the Central Train Station and then ask someone else for the next leg.
“That’s what everyone here says!”, he said with a smile. He was in town for two weeks and was doing a cool, little experiment. He only got around by asking people for directions. Soooo old-school!
One of his observations is that Copenhageners, like me, besides being helpful, never really gave him complete and specific directions. They sent him in the right direction and then suggested he ask someone else for further details once he got closer. I found that so incredibly interesting.
I spent an awful lot of time thinking about it afterwards. I made mental notes of my own experiences and asked friends about their wayfinding habits.
The baseline of my observations it that us Copenhageners aren’t very good with street…
