Abu Dhabi Cultural Wayfinding

Saadiyat Island is Abu Dhabi’s premier ocean side destination and sitting at the centre of this stellar precinct sits the Abu Dhabi Cultural District. Comprised of a breathtaking collection of the world’s most renown cultural institutions, the Cultural District is as much an ode to the future of Emirati culture and ambition as it is to the finest names in art and architecture.

Offering one of the highest concentrations of cultural experiences anywhere, the Saadiyat Cultural District is home to Louvre Abu Dhabi, Berklee Abu Dhabi and Manarat Al Saadiyat, and the future home of Zayed National Museum, Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, Natural History Museum Abu Dhabi, and teamLab Phenomena Abu Dhabi.

Positioned as a global forum for innovation and creativity, dialogue and exploration, it was a perfect fit for Creative Dialog to take on the challenge of upgrading the existing public realm wayfinding scheme which had fallen significantly short of client expectation.

When Creative Dialog was directly engaged to re-imagine the wayfinding for this incredible destination it was imperative for us that the visitor experience is welcoming, intuitive and imbued by quintessential Abu Dhabian hospitality. With this in mind, our task was to provide a site wide navigational response that was not only contextual but one that fosters exploration and makes each visitor journey an easy and convenient one.

Our approach was to respect the significance of the site. Where others had attempted to compete with the iconic architecture, we delivered a minimalistic intervention featuring a beautifully conceived wayfinding toolkit. The design speaks to the destination's character through subtle, sculpted illuminated Corian forms, while the black and white graphics play between the dichotomy of traditional Emirati clothing and contemporary information design, allowing cultural elements to enhance the wayfinding system while sitting humbly and respectfully in the background.