Priscila Lena Farias / Anna Calvera Marcos da Costa ... - Blucher

The use of ceramics within the signage project in hostile and environmental
protected areas: the Keller Peninsula Case
FERRAZ, Nicoli / Graduation / UF-ES / Brazil
ALVAREZ, Cristina Engel / PhD / UF-ES / Brazil
PINHEIRO, Mauro / PhD / UF-ES / Brazil
RODRIGUES, Maria Regina / PhD / UF-ES / Brazil
Signage / Ceramics / Ecodesign / Sustainability
The research goal is to measure the suitability of ceramics as a material
for manufacturing sign prototypes and support components of the
signage system for the Comandante Ferraz Brazilian Antarctic Station,
Brazil’s main installment in the Antarctic region. The latter represents
an environment with particular characteristics, having unique rules of
occupation and material extraction and disposal, which demands a
special approach when inserting any kind of foreign body to it.
1. Introduction
Environment protection has been one of the main concerns
since the beginning of the Brazilian occupation in the Keller
Peninsula, Antarctica. Considering the hostility of that region,
the promotion of scientific researches depends entirely upon
the installation of a basic structure which grants safety and the
essential work conditions. Since its first activities year, in 1994,
the increasing number of scientific activities conducted in Antarctica
demanded consecutive expansion works of the Brazilian
main installment, the Comandante Ferraz Brazilian Antarctic
Station (EACF). Furthermore the number of station users is also
growing due to the ascension of touristic activities (PROANTAR
2012), having direct influence on the density of traffic flow
in that same region. Such scenario makes the organization of
tracks and routes as well as the instruction of users become essential,
when it comes to environmental protection, control over
contingent remains production and people’s safety.
The goal of this research consists in studying the performance
of ceramics as an alternative material for the production of the
Keller Peninsula Signage System’s components, i.e. the region
in which the EACF is located (fig. 1). The area features peculiar
environmental characteristics of its own, and is regulated by
special international and national protection standards for occupation,
usage and disposal of material. As expected, this condition
implicates in the need of an unique approach for the introduction
of any element sort into the original landscape, pointing
out ceramics as the most efficient and sustainable resource to
produce the Keller Peninsula Signage System’s constituents.
This is an opportunity to investigate new intelligent solutions
for occupation with low environmental impact, especially during
the reconstruction period of the main EACF installment, severely
damaged during a firebreak in the 25th of February of 2012
(MARINHA, 2012). This event presents an opportunity to investigate
the use of ceramics in projects designed for the Antarctic
continent, in special at the signage level.
2. Theoretical Foundation
A great deal of terminologies is used to refer to signage systems,
each one of them having distinct concepts. Amongst them are:
Señalética, wayfinding and Environmental Graphic Design.
Joan Costa (1992, apud VELHO, 2007) uses the term Señalética
to name the need of information or orientation caused and worsen
by the contemporary mobility phenomena. Miller and Lewis
(2000) define wayfinding as multiple processes that support
the user in laying down the journey’s starting point and destiny.
Calori (2007) describes Environmental Graphic Design as the
activity that involves a systematic and coherent development
of graphic communication of information for a particular place
within an artificial environment. The latter author also elicits the
terminology “signage” as ready signs.
Within this article “signage” is employed as the description of a
system with a uniform identity and sets its goals in educating,
limiting and supporting traffic flow in the Keller Peninsula.
Figure 1. Preliminary Signage Studies of the Keller Peninsula, Antarctica. (Picture:
ALVAREZ et al. 2005)
The Keller Peninsula Signage System emerges out of the necessity
of finding solutions to minimize the environmental impact
Design Frontiers: Territiories, Concepts, Technologies / Proceedings of the 8th Conference of the International Committee for
Design History & Design Studies - ICDHS 2012 / São Paulo, Brazil / © 2012 Blucher / ISBN 978-85-212-0692-7