The encyclopedia · Product & Design · Product decision · 2023–2024
Cemento Sol turned plain pavement into a map that blind people can read by foot
A Peruvian cement maker added coded bumps to sidewalk tiles so visually impaired pedestrians could tell a bank, shop or clinic apart by touch.
Cemento Sol (UNACEM)
the move
Blind and low-vision people navigate with tactile paving, but the standard bumps only tell them there is a path, not what is next to it. In Miraflores, Lima, they had to ask strangers where the pharmacy, bank or bus stop was.
Cemento Sol, with Circus Grey, built on the existing orientation system by adding a readable code to the same tiles. The number of raised lines indicates the kind of establishment beside that stretch of sidewalk, so a person can map a street by touch.
Rather than invent a new assistive gadget, the brand improved the material it already sells: concrete. The tiles were installed across Miraflores and validated with the National Union of the Blind of Peru and the NGO 'I am your Eyes'.
The design was open-licensed, so UNACEM gave away the intellectual property in the name of scale, letting other cities adopt an accessibility standard with no licensing barrier.
why it works
- It used the touch language blind users already know, so it dropped straight into their routine.
- It solved orientation, the harder of the two navigation problems, rather than only keeping a path.
- By open-sourcing the patent it removed the friction that usually stops a good civic idea from spreading.
- It turned the maker's own product (concrete) into the vehicle for the solution, so the cost was intrinsic to what it sells.
what transfers
The most powerful design ideas upgrade an existing, already-accepted infrastructure instead of asking users to adopt a new device or app — and publishing the patent made the whole category cheaper.
what came after
Sightwalks installed more than 75,000 square metres of coded tactile tiles across Miraflores, reaching over 500,000 people and generating media impact of 1.9 million. It won the Design Grand Prix and seven other Lions at Cannes 2024 — the most awards ever for a Peruvian brand — plus a Gold Effie in Peru, and the tile system was offered to other cities.
references
- Cemento Sol's "Smart Sidewalk" wins Cannes award for its contribution to society
- Cannes Lions 2024: Design winners announced
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