Designing of Wayfinding as facilitator of evacuation in case of emergency: application to large museums

In case of emergency, a poor building layout or inappropriate signage system in relation to the environment or to the knowledge by people can hinder the orienting ability. These aspects become crucial for a conscious design/retrofit for complex buildings as large museums, because they could be or become hardly usable by people, especially in overcrowding situations. Thoughts prior to design of works for safety in large museums must also take into account of the individual abilities in identifying the exit routes to safe place/rooms and that even occasional visitors shall easily find them usable. In such a context with a large presence of visitors in relation to particular cultural events, we also need to assess lack of alternative measures (design/construction, systems or management) besides the signage system, actually only based on visual signs. In fact, this is usually the only available guidance tool, and it is only part of the overall safety system, without providing signage modes using more sensorial abilities. Therefore, this paper pays attention to identifying guidelines - for actions aiming to safety and to facilitation of evacuation in case of emergency in large museums - included in the following specific areas: visual access to information, design/construction perception level, directional signage system, floorplans layout.