MIT aspires to provide spaces that are useful and efficient while also being welcoming, comfortable, and safe. We seek insights into how we can better use, design, and deliver spaces that most effectively serve our students, faculty, staff, and visitors. The Campus Planning team works to help ensure MIT spaces best support teaching, research, and campus life. In partnership with MIT departments, labs, centers and initiatives, we conduct studies that look at how classrooms, labs, offices, residences, and common areas are used today and how they could best serve our community in the future.

Study activities include:

• Surveying and interviewing students, faculty, researchers, residents, and staff to gather input on needs, challenges, and priorities. Methods include hosting focus groups, conducting in-person interviews, and inviting individuals to complete online questionnaires.
• Observing how people move through campus to identify patterns in traffic flow, gathering spots, and underused areas. Teams may conduct on-site field studies, pedestrian counts, or analyze frequency of Wi-Fi use by location.
• Collecting and analyzing scheduling and occupancy data from sources such as room-booking software, digital occupancy sensors, and manual counts, to see when and how spaces are in use.
• Measuring and documenting room layouts and capacities to inform potential redesigns or renovations.
• Assessing the suitability of spaces for evolving academic programs, new technologies, or collaborative work styles by comparing existing conditions with program needs, accessibility standards, technology requirements, and best practices in space design.

The insights we gather help guide decisions about space allocation, renovations, and new construction, ensuring that the campus evolves in a way that’s functional, welcoming, and aligned with the Institute’s mission.