Week 12

Exhibition day
To remedy concerns from last weeks presentation, we created small boards that showed how it works. We also included images of the colour change.

Context

The Cable Car is down the end of Cable Car Lane, a narrow, dark and difficult to find space. We saw an opportunity to give it personality and a sense of place within the hustle and bustle of Lambton Quay, and connect it to other Wellington attractions. From our site analysis we found that the lane was not easily visible from the street and tourists would regularly have to ask for directions to the lane from surrounding businesses.

Our target audience is cruise ship passengers and other visitors wanting to experience the Cable Car. The average age of cruise ship passengers arriving in Wellington is 65 years old, with 3/4 of the cruise ship passengers aged between 50-79 years old.

Process

In our research, we discovered that there has been a recent rebrand of the cable car. The recent rebrand incorporates the old branding but with new-age neaunces. We decided to use the same approach with this project, as to still incorporate the history of the cable car, but bring it into the modern world. In 2014 LED lights were installed into the cable car tunnel, turning it into a more modern experience. We decided to incorporate light into our design, since the lack of light in the lane was one of the main things preventing it from being found. We also wanted to extend the cable car journey to the surrounding attractions, such as Zealandia, Botanic Gardens, Cable Car Museum & Kelburn lookout.

Outcome

We propose a lightbox in the ground of Cable Car Lane that will illuminate the lane and make it more visible from the main street. Mimicking the brick work, the lightbox creeps out into the main street which will entice people in.

We have incorporated the font used in the current Cable Car branding for the lightbox text; “Cable Car Lane”. We have also added native wildlife and plants found in Zealandia such as Tuis, Keas, Wetas, Pohutukawa and Kowhai.

The light box can change colour for different events such as ANZAC day, breast cancer awareness, Hurricanes games etc. establishing a connection between the cable car and the rest of the city.

We propose the lightbox be protected by a layer of plexiglass that is flush with the existing brick work. The plexiglass provides a level of protection for the lightbox, meaning that the glass can be changed when it gets worn out, instead of having the change the entire lightbox. The plexiglass is also safe to walk on.

Week 11

Final presentations to the class before the exhibition:

Opportunities

• The Cable Car Lane is a dark and narrow space
• The Cable Car Lane gets lost in the hustle and bustle of Lambton Quay
• The Cable Car experience is only 5-7 minutes
• The Cable Car leads to many attractions in Kelburn, including Cable Car Museum, Zealandia, the Botanic Gardens and Kelburn Lookout

Precedents (light/text/brick)

Precedents (existing branding)

Proposal

Issues - materiality and how it works

Week 10

Presentation board #2
Leading in to this tutorial, we decided to focus on the less developed aspect of our concept - the Lambton Quay way finding signage. 

Development
Issue - the Cable Car is relatively difficult to come by unless looking for it, even then it is tricky.

Precedents (current branding)

Week 9

Presentation boards
The presentation boards allowed us to look at our concept more objectively. Presenting it alongside our precedents and outlined opportunities made us see how effective our concept was.

We were able to get decent feedback, and engage with other groups more effectively. Giving and getting feedback from more than one group using 'I like' and 'I wonder' statements and post it notes helped to identify the problems. We were able to explain our idea alongside the images, which helped us to identify our objective of creating a sense of place.

What's working - the lighting in the lane
What wasn't - the Lambton Quay signage - perhaps make it more universal and more recognisable as a Cable Car

Week 8

Each member in the group came up with a concept - we decided this was the best way to get a variety of ideas in the table to work from. We presented our ideas in powerpoint form and from there we realised light was the direction we needed to head in. Light attracts people, it can create a sense of place and lighten up the dark lane.

Opportunities

• Cruise ship tourists take regular shuttle buses from the terminal across from the stadium to the city centre.
• The closest stop to the cable car is on Brandon Street off Lambton Quay otherwise it’s a 25 minute walk to the cable car.
• Use this free service for tourists to limit our spatial area to work with.
• The Cable Car entrance is down a narrow alleyway, there is potential to use anamorphic type that is visible from the main street to guide people towards the entrance
• The brick footpath could be used to make patterns using colour
• The Cable Car leads to multiple Wellington attractions, these attractions could inspire the navigational aids.  
• Pricing isn’t clear until you go down the alleyway and to the Cable Car entrance. Pricing and other information eg. closing and opening times, could be more visible from the main street.
• The Cable Car opened on 22nd Feb 1902, therefore there is a lot of history surrounding the cable car which could be incorporated into the design.

Target Audience

• Those hopping off a cruise ship and making their way down to the cable car.
• Other people who aren't from Wellington and would like to ride the Cable Car too.
• The median age of cruise ship passengers arriving in Wellington between 2015-2017, is 65 years old, with 3/4 of the Cruise Ship passengers aged between 50-79 years old.

Precedents (text)

Precedents (light)

Concept 1

Concept 2

Concept 3

Concept 4

Concept 5

Concept 6

Development (hanging tube light writing)

Hanging lighting from the arch overhead down cable car lane that was in one of our concept ideas - and tube lighting will spell out 'cable car lane' to mirror the writing on the ground.

This will allow the writing on the ground to be subsequently lit up at night time and people walking down the lane will be able to look up and read 'cable car lane' above them.

The lighting above does not have to be white - lighting colour could be developed and even changeable to suit different events happening in the city centre or national events that could be recognised - for example pink day (breast cancer awareness), or yellow and black for the Hurricanes.