"Space Syntax" emerged in the late 1970s in Britain as a set of ways of analysing spatial configurations and urban spaces. The techniques are employed to help architects and urban planners, and also in the design of large individual structures like shopping precincts or office blocks.
The pioneer of mental mapping and the concept of "wayfinding" is the American researcher and urban planner Kevin Andrew Lynch (1918-84), whose The Image of the City (1960) used interviews with people from Boston, Jersey City, and Los Angeles to examine how people formed mental maps to understand and navigate their surroundings.
Subsequent studies on "cognitive cartography", the associations people have of their immediate spatial surroundings - for example what expectations tourists have of places they visit or how local residents perceive certain areas as dangerous or frightening - have become commonplace in geographical and behavioural research.
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 23.4.2006
