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Sign posted

Posted on June 30th 2011

Matali Crasset’s way finding system for the Royal Fontevraud Abbey adds an element of exploration to a site visit.


Matali Crasset has designed a series of way finding signage for the Royal Fontevraud Abbey in France, a religious building that also hosts a cultural centre.

A UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Fontevraud is a space that encourages visitors to get lost and find their way again. Crasset’s signage system is essentially a network of lines, both visible and invisible, that outlines the various paths that visitors can take to explore the site.

The different lines separate and come together again in a way that is informative, directional, practical and even amusing. On a more subtle level, the signage also encourages visitors to stop, read and look around for information that they might otherwise not have thought to explore.

Aimed to be non-invasive, the signage is like a feint line around the different areas. Aluminium, in different colours, was the main material used for the signage.

Matali Crasset

Matali Crasset was born in 1965 in Chlons-en-Champagne. After graduating at the Ateliers ENSCI in 1991, she participated in the Milan Triennial, where she presented her project the Domestic Trilogy, in which three diffusors spreading warmth (murmur and intimacy), light (images and memories) and water (scents and swirls).

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