Meet me by the ridiculous interior weatherboards just past the irrelevantly big green living wall.

Legibility, in the urban design context, is used to describe the ease with which people can understand the layout of a place (/space/city...). It can be easy or hard depending on visibility or location of features such as paths, edges, or landmarks, and whether they accurately align with our ingrained knowledge of groups or settlements of people: eg this width of path implies heavy use = many people = takes me to large centre or this building is unique and large enough for many people = must be a large centre for many users.. (full credit here to one of my all-time desert island top five academics, Kev' Lynch). So you basicly imagine you're somewhere for the first time and you want to find the middle of town. What clues lead you there? Are they obvious enough? Can you read those without having to read a map?

This concept exists on a smaller scale - for example in a room or a building or space. In a bar, we know that even if we don't see a sign for toilets we can meander towards a private looking alley or corridor, often near the kitchen or other staff areas, and find them. If they weren't there, and were instead straight off the best seated real estate in the joint, right by the ocean view, the place would be pretty illegible for patrons to function (piss) in. Just like if you were in a European city and the main (good) bits of town weren't somewhere around the major river's edge or near a grand and old train station.

So anyway, it made me smile the other night (actually weeks ago - JL and I's xmas tipple.. where does the time go?) when I was at Foxglove on the waterfront and the only concept for the interior seems to be... include everything. Landmarks everywhere. Elements for navigation: at the base of the stairs a huge towering wall element covered in greenery, a different texture for many of the walls, and some varying furniture. I'm kindof charmed at the thought of the designer considering the drunkness of the users. You're stumbling to the bathroom, you cant remember where ur group of skuxxy friends that looks like every other group are standing.. o right, by the giant moose head. I was there quite early (5pm ish) and, while it was very light and I was very sober, the whole effect was just ridiculous. I could barely navigate through it because it was just too distracting.