But maps are only part of the exploratory process: wandering around, putting together “mental maps”, remains a powerful way of fixing a real landscape into our heads as the working landscape of memory.

My colleagues see me wandering around and we chat and see how the move is going. All the time, I’m noting locations of stairs, doors, coffee pots, rest rooms. What we do in buildings where we work, we do in the outdoors as hikers, hunters, and the like.

Last month I did two pretty extensive backpacks in northern New Mexico. I didn’t really know the country, and relied heavily on a fine wilderness map prepared by USGS for the USFS (Carson and Santa Fe National Forests). But lots of the time I was gathering crucial data about my surroundings and intended route by wandering around and looking for cues from the landscape. In several places in the Pecos Wilderness, the trails have been blocked by long stretches of deadfall. In other parts, trails have just been overgrown or scuffed away. You have to use all our experience and senses to stay located.

Just like in our new building: we use flat paper maps and our own eyes and brain to get around.

Fun to consider how we “geo-locate” within a new work space.