Cognitive Mapping + Spatial Perception

In my teaching, I use drawing and mapping as tools to reveal how students perceive and internalize the built environment. When I asked my class—many of whom were new to New Orleans—to create hand-drawn maps of the city, the results illustrated how cognitive mapping transforms lived experience into spatial representation.

Their maps showed intentional distortions: familiar places like the St. Charles streetcar line, Tulane’s campus, and the French Quarter appeared oversized, while unfamiliar areas faded or vanished altogether. These moments of spatial distortion are not mistakes; they are insights, revealing how identity, memory, and limited exposure shape a person’s understanding of place.

By bringing this awareness into the studio, I help students recognize the subjectivity behind every map or plan, encouraging them to engage design with clearer intention, deeper curiosity, and a more empathetic understanding of how different people experience space.

Student work shown here is shared with permission or presented anonymously in accordance with academic privacy standards.