ENVIRONMENTAL AUTOBIOGRAPHY

Sep 10

Environmental Autobiography

Environmental autobiography is a powerful tool for teaching, scholarship, and design developed by Clare Cooper Marcus since the 1960s. It is an opportunity to understand how the places in which we grew up have shaped who we are as adults. Cooper Marcus has written about how she uses environmental autobiography with both clients and young designers to help them understand their preferences and predispositions. Mental mapping is another powerful tool, developed by Kevin Lynch, to draw out our memories and conceptions of places. Through graphic representation it helps us see what things stand out or are central in our experience, the limits to our understanding of places, and what spatial/geographic frameworks we use as cognitive models. Together these tools can provide deep insight into our past experiences and psychological constructs we have of the places we inhabit.

In my classes I introduce students to both tools, reading articles by Cooper Marcus and Lynch, and have them reflect on their own experiences to create mental maps and environmental autobiographies. As young designers, these tools give them insight into their past and how it informs both their psychological outlook and their design sensibility.

I have also used these tools as a springboard for my own scholarship. At the Association of American Geographers annual meeting I presented a paper entitled “Becoming a Time-Space Compressor: A First-Person Account” which incorporated David Harvey’s concepts into a version of my environmental autobiography, to better understand how moving to New York City shaped my outlook. Likewise as a designer, I often ask clients to reflect on how and where they grew up to understand their tastes and inclinations. My drawing practice also utilizes mental mapping as both a generative and reflective process to understand spaces and experiences.

Collaborators: Various

Related Projects: Environmental Design Theory, ‘scape Drawings