New Directions in Cognitive-Environmental Research

Problem, research strategy, and findings: Cognitive-environmental urban planning and design began with Kevin Lynch’s (1960) The Image of the City. Scientific and technological developments, including discoveries in brain physiology and cognitive psychology, the psychosocial determinants of health, and the spread of navigation and information technologies, have increased the pertinence of cognitive-environmental research to planning. Re-engagement in contemporary debates about brain function and cities can help address long-standing humanistic challenges in planning as well as new challenges arising from emergent urban technologies. We systematically review scholarly work that cites Lynch or invokes cognitive mapping and synthesize cognitive-environmental concepts and methods from fields outside planning. We propose how planning and design practice can align with a cognitive-environmental framework. Cognitive-environmental research engages issues such as the need for equitable access, codes and rules that create good urban form, planning data and information systems, and participatory planning imbued with local knowledge and civic engagement. Urban planners and designers can use cognitive-environmental approaches to work toward more just and humane cities, even as they are transformed by new technologies. Lynch’s ideas, particularly his insistence on an engaged approach to learning the city, remain highly relevant.Takeaway for practice: Insights from cognitive-environmental research identify specific priorities and methods for planning, including participant-generated urban information, community engagement and learning, revisions to urban codes and regulations related to neurological differences in the experience of the built environment and technological changes in wayfinding and navigation, and health-focused urban planning initiatives, particularly related to mental wellbeing.