The Athlone Castle Public Realm Enhancement Scheme and Athlone Wayfinding and Interpretation Strategy Westmeath County Council is progressing a project to undertake public realm enhancements in the immediate vicinity of Athlone Castle and to develop a Wayfinding and Interpretation Strategy for the growth town.
The overall aim of the project is to improve the visitor experience of Athlone. Funding secured from Fáilte Ireland through the Destination Towns Funding Scheme has enabled the appointment of an architect led multi-disciplinary design team and technical advisory team to conduct this work.
Urban Agency Architects Ltd were appointed design consultants and project lead for this scheme at end of December 2021 and commenced work on this project in early 2022.
Both the Athlone Castle Public Realm Enhancement Scheme and the Athlone Wayfinding and Interpretation Strategy have been running concurrently since the beginning of the year led by Urban Agency Architects with a multi-disciplinary project team including Originate (Graphic Designers ), who are leading the Wayfinding and Interpretation Strategy.
The Athlone Castle Public Realm Enhancement Scheme aims to improve the public realm areas both east of Athlone Castle, along the River Shannon and to the north at the Castle entrance and leading up to Market Place.
The project has advanced through a process of background research followed by a concept design development process which has led to a preferred conceptual design. The next steps for this project will be to develop a detailed public realm design and to undergo the statutory planning process.
In relation to the Wayfinding and Interpretation Strategy, the project goal is to define a new wayfinding design system for Athlone which will improve the visitor experience, integrating into the Athlone Castle public realm improvements.
A detailed audit of existing signage, wayfinding and movement patterns within the town was conducted and following this audit, a preliminary design system has been developed, including typography, iconography, colour palette and signage treatment.
