It is defined by Howard Gardner as a human computational capacity that provides the ability or mental skill to solve spatial problems of navigation, visualization of objects from different angles and space, faces or scenes recognition, or to notice fine details.
Gardner further explains that Spatial Intelligence could be more effective to solve problems in areas related to realistic, thing-oriented, and investigative occupations.
Like the ability in which football players compute and execute the exact angle and force required to score a goal from a free kick.
It shows watercourses, animal shelter, where the edible plant are and all dimensions and spatial arrangement has been learned through a constant exposure to the world surrounding them, by walking, hunting, stalking, spearing.
For van Schaik, some of the most influencing architects using spatial intelligence in combination of their community's mental space are: Peter Zumthor, Sean Godsell, Herzog and de Meuron, Zaha Hadid and Kathryn Findlay.
[5] Nicos Komninos applies the concept of spatial intelligence to cities, and defined the idea as the ability of a community to use its intellectual capital, institutions and material infrastructure to deal with a range of problems and challenges.
Using this spatially combined intellectual capacity, cities can respond effectively to changing socio-economic conditions, address challenges, plan their future, and sustain the prosperity and well-being of citizens.
Gopnik's example refers to the ability of the hockey player Wayne Gretzky as a gift of spatial and situational intelligence: knowing what is going to happen in three seconds, anticipating the pattern approaching by seeing the pattern instantaneously, sussing out the goalie's next decision and other players' eventual trajectories in what would be a single glance if a glance were even taken.
The results of this contextual understanding will inform and reflect the specific cultural, historical and political diversity and value of the architectural and built environment to the design community and beyond.