BLOX

BLOX by OMA is one of the most iconic and debated buildings in Copenhagen. Housing both exhibitions, cafes, businesses and private apartments, BLOX faced challenges after its opening due to its urban placement by the harbour front and its complex architecture. Visitors simply couldn’t navigate the site, often failing to reach their destination.

Designit was asked by Realdania to audit and map all essential journeys and touch-points to better understand how to communicate BLOX’s purpose and improve the experience for tenants and visitors. Journeys and use-cases included everything from random tourists passing by, to postal delivery services finding the right door, as well as the onsite gym (SATS) redirecting lost visitors.

The Designit team used a combination of service, business, and brand design capabilities to facilitate the process via initial recommendations, an end-to-end vision, business case, prototyping, and finally implementation. By outlining the needs and visitors journeys, we designed a flexible and sustainable way-finding system based on three key principles:

1. Experiences before logos – to distinguish open-to-public services from private tenants and businesses.

2. Navigation and promotion – flexible functionality for way-finding end event promotions.

3. Grid and modularity — mirroring the architectural qualities and identity of BLOX.

By rethinking the entire wayfinding system we were able to provide new clarity to BLOX.

The new solution makes it more intuitive to navigate for visitors, and for BLOX, it provides an effective canvas to promote the exciting events that take place. Furthermore, we helped decrease the carbon footprint of the property by re-programming user-journeys and reducing the use of elevators by up to 20%.