The Image of the Tunnels: Mapping Perception of the MIT Underground

Abstract

Kevin Lynch’s influential book, The Image of the City, proposes five elements by which residents of a space create mental maps of their neighborhood and use these to define their spatial perception and navigation: paths, edges, districts, nodes, and landmarks. The MIT Tunnels are spaces utilized daily for a myriad of purposes: to reach labs and offices, to avoid slow-moving tourist traffic and biting Boston cold, and to explore MIT’s iconic hacking spots. This work exploresif Lynchian principles apply to these pseudourban underground spaces and culminates in a GeoGuessr-inspired virtual game where students can test and grow their knowledge of tunnel navigation. The hypotheses tested in this thesis project extend Lynch’s framework to relevant tunnel analogs: familiar paths, districts (clusters of buildings and departments), tunnel landmarks, and cross-level relationships between above- and underground mental maps. These hypotheses were tested via preliminary surveys on MIT students. Once completed, the subsequent experiments involved two games - one physically in the tunnels, one online with images of the tunnels gathered with a 360-camera. The games involved having participants navigate to a target building from a starting point. After the in-person game was completed, participants answered a series of questions about their route. These races offered information about familiar paths, landmarks, and strategies participants used to navigate the tunnels. Results from this game confirmed conclusions drawn from preliminary surveys that Lynchian principles do extend to the tunnels via relevant analogs, and above-ground knowledge and connection points offered even more information than Lynch’s five principles alone. Students consistently rely on heavily traveled paths, navigating through familiar districts, and using above ground knowledge to traverse in unknown underground buildings. This work can be extended to help grow students’ understanding of these tunnels, fostering further creativity and student expression in this complex network of spaces.