This educational, participatory thesis project aims to understand and explore attachments formed with the built environment through personal storytelling, wayfinding, and cognition. Utilizing qualitative research and immersive technologies to explore the relationship between collective memory and well-being, outcomes include recommendations for educational spaces, aging spaces and wellbeing. The built environment as it exists currently is not age friendly or optimized for cognitive aging in place. By creating a card game inspired by artworks to invoke memory and metaphoric thinking, this project attempts to understand diverse experiences, challenges and place attachments faced by the user group impacted by the proposed interior intervention. Additionally, it aims to educate the community about cognitive mapping and the way human beings create mental cognitive landmarks in order to effectively navigate within the built environment.

In order to develop the thesis, a participatory workshop promoting group bonding while engaging with a civically empowered community was conducted at The Writer’s Room at Drexel University. For the purpose of this workshop, a cognitive card deck and a zine on cognitive mapping was designed. The deck included a list of intended place experiences and memories that remain for those suffering from cognitive decline. Each card contained a set of writing prompts on the back and a well known artwork associated with the memory on the front. The participants were instructed to draw a card at random and recall a memory associated with the image/words on the card. They were then asked to draw a map of the place the memory occurred in and write a short autobiographical description explaining the drawing followed by a share back session. The workshop being conducted in the same structure as the proposed design intervention helped contextualize the experiences of the participants thereby providing insights about place experiences that could be used to inform programmatic decisions. The eventual aim of this project is to create an AR version of this card deck that would be integrated into the physical space encouraging memory recall, community building and an improved life satisfaction while also creating a sense of intrigue.

Through a research driven design process that includes reactivating a neighborhood landmark, this project supports cognitive aging in an university adjacent, civically active community. Current evidence-based methods include participatory sessions with community and expert interviews. The proposed project is an intergenerational day care center housing community based programming thereby providing space for a diverse, equitable community interaction.

Keywords: Immersive Experiences, Memory and Cognition, Spatial Perception, Wayfinding, Accessibility.