Wayfinding through curiosity, complexity, and critical thinking
Set within Ghent's Botanical Garden, the Ghent University Museum is part of a 200-year academic legacy and sits alongside major cultural institutions like MSK and S.M.A.K., forming part of the city’s vibrant Museum Square. The museum brings together collections from science, medicine, zoology, ethnography, and archaeology, inviting visitors into a space where science is presented as a process, not a product. It invites visitors into the minds of scientists, offering space for doubt, failure, wonder, and imagination. Rather than showcasing answers, the museum encourages questions—across biology, ethnography, psychology, medicine, and beyond.
Project
Ghent University Museum (GUM)
Client
Ghent University Museum
Collaborators
Location
Ghent, Belgium
Size
Project Build Cost
Focus
Our Benelux team was brought in to design a wayfinding system that matched this approach. It needed to support confident exploration without prescribing a fixed path. Visitors come here to think, reflect, and discover at their own pace. So the wayfinding had to do the same.
The strategy we developed was shaped around the idea of ‘Being Lost with Confidence'. This is a principle we apply in other public environments too, like parks and cities. These are places where people enjoy wandering and following their curiosity, and they don’t want to be guided every step of the way. Our approach gives visitors the freedom to explore at their own pace, while ensuring that when they do need something specific—a bathroom, an exit, or a café—they can find it easily and with confidence. At GUM, signage is placed thoughtfully, offering quiet prompts that help visitors reorient themselves when they choose to, rather than telling them where to go next.
Every design choice served a purpose. Typography and materials were selected to sit naturally within the museum’s architecture and content. The system sits comfortably within the museum environment, supporting the experience without drawing attention to itself.
Navigation supports the museum’s broader philosophy. Visitors can move freely across disciplines and displays, following their curiosity without losing their sense of place. The system doesn’t compete for attention—it complements the space, helping people feel supported, not steered.
For a museum grounded in academic history yet focused on the future of knowledge-making, our role was to help translate its values into a physical experience. We made sure that movement through the space reflects the museum’s tone—open, reflective, and quietly confident. Clear. Thoughtful. Open.
