This paper proposes a qualitative reasoning approach for the spatial configuration of mechanisms that could be applied in the early phase of the conceptual design. The spatial configuration problem addressed in this paper involves the relative direction and position between the input and output motion, and the orientation of the constituent primitive mechanisms of a mechanism. The knowledge of spatial configuration of a primitive mechanism is represented in a matrix form called spatial configuration matrix. This matrix provides a compact and convenient representation scheme for the spatial knowledge, and facilitates the manipulation of the relevant spatial knowledge. Using this spatial knowledge of the constituent primitive mechanisms, the overall configuration of a mechanism is described and identified by a spatial configuration state matrix. This matrix is obtained by using a qualitative reasoning method based on sign algebra and is used to represent the qualitative behavior of the mechanism. The matrix-based representation scheme allows handling the involved spatial knowledge simultaneously and the proposed reasoning method enables the designer to predict the spatial behavior of a mechanism without knowing specific dimension of the components of the mechanism.