Three groups in Bath ‘walking city’ project

A major public realm and wayfinding project is under way to make Bath a ‘walking city’, involving consultancies Pearson Lloyd, FW Design and City ID.

City ID was first appointed to the project in 2006 by Bath & North East Somerset Council to help create its Public Realm and Movement Strategy for Bath city centre.

The consultancy has been retained and is now overseeing FW Design, which won a tender for strategic wayfinding and graphics in August, and Pearson Lloyd, appointed in July to a separate tender for the design of on-street information products, bus shelters and street furniture.

‘We pitched for both [briefs], but weren’t successful,’ says Roger Crabtree, managing director of FW Design. ‘We’re responsible for developing a detailed wayfinding system that will ultimately be carried by the product that Pearson Lloyd makes.’

The project is worth more than £250 000 to FW Design, which will make a mapping solution. ‘Lots of local authorities have a poor consistency on the street,’ Crabtree says.
‘We’ll be designing bespoke maps that are intuitive and easy to use. If you have the provision for accessibility at a digital level, on the street and in print, there’s a consistency of information.’ Pearson Lloyd director Tom Lloyd says his consultancy is starting on a 12-month project that will see the ‘physical landscape developed’. It will begin with wayfinding, before designing street furniture, bins, bollards and lighting.

Lloyd says, ‘It needs to be legible and accessible – an environment for businesses, tourists, shoppers and the people who call it home.’