“Psychogeography”

I was recently reading an article about a small community on the coast of Maine promoting sustainable farming. In the process, I came across this word, “psychogeography”.

I am intrigued by this new-to-me word. Psychogeography is about an individual’s feelings and behaviors related to a place, a geographical location. It may not be obvious, but we all have experience with this concept. Think about when you go to our favorite restaurant to meet up with friends and enjoy community filled with laughter, being seen, being heard, and creating connections. That restaurant often becomes one of our favorite places to go.

As humans we create connections to places and spaces through our feelings and behaviors and these connections become conduits for our sense of belonging.

Just as it’s true for places we “go to”, it’s also true in the spaces where we live and work. The human ability for “place making” is all around us. Expecting parents prepare their home for a new baby or “Bob” who works in the Southwest corner cubicle on the 3rd floor has given years to anchoring his “place” to finely hone and optimize his workspace. Both situations are about shaping the connections between the spaces, others, and themselves.

The next time you visit your favorite coffee shop to observe that same person sitting in the same favored spot for the third time that week or you face the wave of intense investment your kids seem to put into “redesigning” their bedroom… again, remember the power and importance of place making and the concept of psychogeography. It’s just people doing a very normal human thing. They are simply looking to create connection through feelings and behaviors in spaces that become meaningful access points to that things that are important.