DISSERTATION ON

MULTISENSORY ARCHITECTURE

Submitted By

FIZAAMIM KHAN
(Enrollment No - A80804015021)
Bachelor of Architecture, (VIII Semester)

Guided By

AR. MINAKSHI RAJPUT

AMITY SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE AND

PLANNING
AMITY UNIVERSITY, RAIPUR
 CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that Fiza Amim Khan has submitted the Report of
Dissertation on “Multisensory Architecture” as a mandatory
requirement for the completion of B.Arch (VIII Semester) course, at
Amity School of Architecture and Planning, Amity University, Raipur,
for the academic year 2015 – 2020. Her work is found to be satisfactory
for the purpose.

Guide Dean/Director

Internal Examiner External Examiner

AMITY SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE AND PLANNING

AMITY UNIVERSITY, RAIPUR
 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to express my sincere thanks to my thesis guide Ar. Minakshi Rajput, Ar.
Subhashri Gosh and Ar. Swarna Junghare for guiding me throughout the research and design
process. I also want to thank my studio coordinator and other faculty members for their
constant advice and efforts.
I want to express my thanks to the Head of Department of Amity School of Architecture and
Planning Ar. Vidya Singh for her persistent guidance. I want to thank my family for
supporting me round the clock. Lastly, I express my gratitude toward my fellow classmate
Sakshi Dhruve for the stimulating discussions.

Fiza Amim Khan

Date: 10.05.2019

i
 ABSTRACT

Aim/Objectives: This dissertation aims to explore how architecture optimizes the experience of a
place through the senses, making it imperative that vision only reinforce the other senses. With only
sight, people become detached from a relationship with the environment through the suppression of
the other senses. However by taking advantage of the other senses, is it possible to create a design
for the body as opposed to it being visually and conceptually dominated?
Conclusion: Multisensory spaces have the potential to make rehabilitation more effective and reduce
the amount of time spent in care. It can efficiently contribute to Healthcare buildings which should
be designed as a living space for patients, which provide a stimulating environment, in order to
create the optimal setting for the healing process. Its design should not be dictated only by its
function, but by the experience and wellbeing of patients.
The design of the built environment can have a profound impact on perception, place identity and
place experience. Sensory design emphasizes the role of a total sensory experience in influencing
our attitudes, behaviors and wellbeing. It is an approach which focuses on the occupant, and how the
composition of sensory stimuli in built environments are arranged to lift the quality of life and
experience for occupants.
Architecture deals not only with materials and form but also with people, their emotions,
environment, space and relationships between them. Senses, taken as a whole, are an information
seeking system. They interact with, and are stimulated by the environment, and in turn, transmit
signals to the brain. Each of the five senses uses different cues for exploring the environment and
features a different perception range. Touch, smell and taste provide information in the immediate
space around us, whereas vision and hearing are capable of representing objects or events from
greater distances. Quiet spaces formed by storm porches, door recesses, shelters, vegetation, squares
and parks can provide a buffer or refuge from a noisy street, vital for those with acute acoustic
sensitivity or certain mental health conditions. Low-energy blue-rich white LED lighting can disrupt
circadian rhythms and strain eyes – warmer colors are better. Soundscape mapping can evaluate the
acoustics of a space, identifying pleasant and stressful sounds. Smellscape mapping can help to
demonstrate the combination of aromas that make up the identity of a place. The design, shape and
materials used in a space have an effect on acoustics.

ii
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER NO. TITLE PAGE NO.

ABSTRACT ii
LIST OF FIGURES iv
LIST OF TABLES v

1 OVERVIEW 1

1.1 Definition of Sense 1

1.2 Introduction 2

1.3 Aim 4

1.4 Methodology and scope of the study 4

2 VISION 6
8
3 AUDITION
4 SOMATOSENSORY 12
15
5 OLFACTION
6 GUSTRATION 16
19
7 INSPIRING EMOTIONAL MEMORY
8 SENSITIVE SENSES 20
20
9 LITERATURE CASE STUDY
9.1 The Jewish Museum Berlin by Daniel Libeskind 20

9.2 Zighizaghi, Italy 22

10 CONCLUSION 25

26
References
List of Publications 27

iii
 List of Figures

Figure:1.1: Basic Seven Senses

Figure:1.2: Visual Representation of Senses & Perception

Figure:2.1: Graphical Representation of the Result of Visual Survey (50 Entries)

Figure:3.1: Interior of the Pantheon

Figure:3.2: Memory of Void, Jewish Museum
Figure 3.3: A concert at El Palau de la Musica in Barcelona, Spain

Figure 4.1: Memorial to the Murdered Jews of EuropeB

Figure 4.2: Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe

Figure 7.1: A Model of Human Event Memory Proposed by Rubin

Figure 7.2: Sense of Place

Figure 9.1: Aerial View of Jewish Museum

Figure 9.2: Interior of Jewish Museum
Figure 9.3: Garden of Exile
Figure 9.4: Garden of Exile
Figure 9.5: The Holocaust Tower
Figure 9.6: Memory of Void
Figure 9.7: Mango Tree
Figure 9.8: Interactive Red Pods with Pre-installed Sounds
Figure 9.9: Multi-Sensorial Urban Garden
Figure 9.10: Horizontal and Vertical Levels
Figure 9.11: Mediterranean Plants

iv
 List of Tables

Table:1.1: Scented flowering plants for landscaping in India

v
1 OVERVIEW

Buildings are useful constructs that, if possible, include an aesthetical factor. A few architects try
and fulfill the characteristic necessities and after that concentrate on the shape that will provide the
constructing their man or woman style and through that its acknowledgment in society. However, it
isn't always gratifying for the customers to translate the program of demands into form and count on
their content. Besides the useful demands, the query for layout ought to be how the people feel
inside the constructing and the way they're going to revel in the space. Now not simplest in terms of
how the distance appears, but also the way it touches, the way it smells, sounds and perhaps even
tastes. The structure is a multi-sensory enjoy. Architects need to make use of this fact to create
homes which might be extra severe, more interesting and profound than three-dimensional items
that are ready to be photographed for the contemporary magazines and addressing the imaginative
and prescient best. In all the senses, limbic gadget structures take data perceived from the five
senses, in addition to different sensory information (temperature, balance, ache, and many others.) to
make sense of the world round us on this examine an outline of the five essential senses and their
relation both to structure and to each other is given. A group of examples will underline the
difference between sensory architecture and a visual know-how of architecture.

1.1 Definition of Sense

Sense-
A faculty by which the body perceives an external stimulus; one of the faculties of sight, smell,
hearing, taste, and touch.1

1
Oxford dictionaries online-sense
1
 Source- The 7 senses foundation
Figure 1.1: Basic Seven Senses

1.2 Introduction

Human beings have five simple senses: vision, flavour, touch, scent, and listening to. Further, there's
the experience of motion (kinetic), pain and thermal consolation. The only architecture is
Equilibrioception, which is the sense of balance. It gives a physiological feel in humans and animals
to save them from falling over as they flow or stand. It entails visible machine, vestibular device,
and proprioception running collectively to achieve balance. The visual gadget works via the use of
eyes, which might be the organs of imaginative and prescient. The visible gadget techniques the
visible element perceived by using the eyes. The eyes stumble on light and items, which they then
convert the facts into impulses to be relayed via the neurons and then to the mind for processing.
The visible system coordinates with the vestibular gadget and the skeletal system to permit the brain
to process signals and determine the location of the body on the subject of the encompassing.
The vestibular machine is comprised of the semi-circular canal system and the otoliths to signify
rotational actions and accelerations, respectively. Proprioception is a sensory perception of
movement and relative function of the frame via the receptors in tissues which include muscle mass,
tendons, inner ear, and joints.

2
 Source- Spatial Experiences, Senses and Atmospheres
Figure 1.2: Visual Representation of Senses & Perception

According to the psychologist James J. Gibson, there are two different definitions to the verb sense.
The first is to detect something and the second is to have a sensation. When the senses are
considered perceptual system, the first definition of the term is used. Gibson further categorized the
5 sensory systems into 5 perceptual systems. This supported his view that our senses are integrated
information seeking mechanisms. In the place of the traditional sight, sound, taste, smell and sight,
Gibson integrated the visual, auditory, taste and smell, basic orienting and haptic systems.
The most persistent memory of any space is often its odour, it has the power to capture and preserve
the memory of any space. Everything has its individual scent and our sense of smell is extremely
sensitive. Strong emotions and past experiences are often stimulated by their respective scents and
new scents can be remembered and identified later. Since it is not possible to name all the odors,
spatial qualities are often associated with certain smells. Taste and smell are usually combined as
they function in unison and can be regarded as alternate ways to experience similar phenomena. Our
tongues can only distinguish 7-8 different types of taste, while the nose can identify hundreds of
substances in minute quantities. The sense of smell amplifies taste. These senses, when used in
architecture, can create heightened experiences.

3
Every significant architecture experience is multi-sensory. The qualities and aspects of the world
around us including of matter, space and scale are measured by our bodies and require the use of all
our senses to create an experience. Experiencing architecture has less to do with what the building
looks like but rather to do with how it engages with all of our senses. People experience a space with
their entire body, through movement, memory and imagination. It is about the dialogue between a
person and architecture. Memorable architecture involves an embodied experience, which is
determined by the reach and grasp of our hand, the touch of our fingers, the feeling of hot and cold
on our skin, the sound of our footsteps, the stance we have taken and the position of our eye. As we
enter a space, we grasp the space through our senses and we measure and explore it with our bodies
and movements. Sensual architecture deals not only with the structure, but rather with how it
engages with our bodies in different ways, and at different times.

1.3 Aim

This dissertation aims to explore how architecture optimizes the experience of a place through the
senses, making it imperative that vision only reinforce the other senses. The sensory design
emphasizes the role of general sensory experience in influencing our attitudes, behaviors and
wellbeing. It’s far a technique which makes a specialty of the occupant, and the way the
composition of sensory stimuli in constructed environments are arranged to boost the quality of
existence and enjoy for occupants. With this method, the impact of structure on occupants can be
better attuned through sensory layout for a more healthy mind and body. With only sight, people
become detached from a relationship with the environment through the suppression of the other
senses. However by taking advantage of the other senses, is it possible to create a design for the
body as opposed to it being visually and conceptually dominated?

1.4 Methodology and Scope of Study

Initially, the study of five basic senses was done to understand how senses and humans are related.
Then, a correlation between feelings and senses was found. Further in the study, it was discovered
that there are other senses subconsciously working together with the five basic senses like thermal
comfort. It was also noticed that they are interdependent and inevitable. Various authors were
referred and finally, seven senses were finalized to further work on. A survey for visual sense was
4
performed by the author to quantify the qualitative aspect of the research. It was executed with the
help of google forms. The data is based on fifty responses. The survey provided a choice between
two extremely different options. A graphical representation of the data is added in the study.
Further, the study contains images and tables to help elaborate each sense. At last, inferences from
the study are concluded.
Multisensory architecture helps to feel a space better. It makes the building less about its structure
and more about its experience. The study can help in better designing of healthcare buildings and
help inhabitants cure earlier. Building itself could heal. When the human psychology is studied
through the perspective of senses, it becomes facile to design a space accordingly.

5
2 VISION

Vision, or perceiving things through the eyes, is a complex process. “Vision and hearing are now the
privileged sociable senses, whereas the other three are considered archaic sensory remnants with a
merely private function, and they are usually suppressed by the code of culture.” 2 Cones translate
light into colorations, significant vision, and information. The rods translate light into peripheral
imaginative and prescient and movement. Rods additionally provide human beings vision whilst
there's restricted light available, like at night. Humans without sight may additionally compensate
with greater listening to, flavor, contact, and smell, in line with a March 2017 study posted inside
the magazine PLOS One. Their reminiscence and language capabilities may be higher than the ones
born with sight, as nicely. "Even in the case of being profoundly blind, the brain rewires itself in a
manner to use the information at its disposal so that it can interact with the environment in a more
effective manner," Dr. Lotfi Merabet, senior author on that 2017 study and the director of the
Laboratory for Visual Neuroplasticity at Schepens Eye Research Institute of Massachusetts Eye and
Ear, said in a statement. Vision has been dominant enough in architecture to overpower all the other
sense. So there are several methods to dethrone the sense of vision. One opportunity is to combine
the sight with other senses. This is already applied in the same media that brought the vision to its
current status. Visual art, TV and even architecture try to use the fast created images to stimulate
new experiences to achieve what David Levin calls a new mode of looking. 3
“The outside can be sensed with hearing and description. We can hear the wind blow off the
building and sense the size of it that way. I tend not to like the smooth glass and steel because it
sounds very hallow and cold. I can hear it creak and moan and groan. I listen for how the wind or
breeze flows around an older structure and I can then sense the little crevices and hallows.
I am still learning about my world through loss of sight. I feel that the more questions I ask then I
can learn how different things sound.”4 Right here the author writes only about the exterior but the
equal goes for the interior, lighting and unique materials. “Open areas are a double-sided sword for
us. Open space offers us an experience of freedom and however it is able to be too noisy for us.
Sound is the number one source of our global. Interior rock partitions have a tendency to muffle the

2
Pallasmaa, J. (1994)
3
Levin, D.M. (1988)
4
Pallasmaa, J. (1994)
6
sound which isn’t an assist for us. Brick seems to be a touch better high ceilings make the rooms
sound huge. Wooden paneling appears to hold the noise out.

ORNAMENTATION
MINIMILISM

VOID
SOLID

INTIMATE
VAST

FLAT
PERSPECTIVE

NEUTRAL
WARM

DIMLY LIT
WELL LIT

Source- Visual Survey Through Google Forms, Author

Figure 2.1: Graphical Representation of the Result
of Visual Survey (50 Entries)

7
3 AUDITION

This experience works thru the complex labyrinth that is the human ear. Sound is funnelled via the
outside ear and piped into the outside auditory canal. It’s far omnidirectional, not targeted like
imaginative and prescient. A view at a building will no longer display the individual looking the
building however a building will return the sound of someone on foot in it and listening to the
sound. And still, most of the time acoustics remain a subconscious background revel in however
within the right locations it may create the right surroundings for nearly religious sceneries.
“We are not aware of the significance of hearing in spatial experience, although sound often
provides the temporal continuum in which visual impressions are embedded.” 5 Like a soundtrack in
a movie, where music is increasing the tension in a thriller or the drama in a love story, sounds in
architecture can increase the intensity of its perception.
“However the temporary city has lost its echo.”6
On one hand, we've new technologies that permit architects to construct awesome soundscapes
alternatively we cheat on the spatial revel in via installing sound absorbing substances and other
sound optimizing factors. One of the maximum interesting auditory studies in structure is
tranquility. Inside the past, the device of silence has been used to create great atmospheres. The
silence inside the Pantheon mixed with the top notch view to the roof is indescribable. The absence
of sound is really growing the atmosphere.
To name a more cutting-edge layout the Jewish museum by way of Daniel Libeskind is playing with
the equal phenomenon. Within the museum complex he designed special rooms called voids in
which he mounted exceptional installations. In one copper plate in the form of faces is mendacity at
the floor of a totally high room. The traveler has to stroll over the faces and a noise echoed by using
the high partitions will fill up the room. The setup is also intended as a reminder to the holocaust
and the sound have to make privy to all of the individuals that had to go through. This is a totally
dramatic usage however in other easy installations it can nonetheless have a pleasant effect
additionally if its miles a fowl’s music recording in an interior lawn or a ground included with sand
and it's far possible to hear the sound of it whilst on foot over it.

5
Pallasmaa, J. (1994)
6
Pallasmaa, J. (1994)
8
Source- Wikimedia Commons, Giovanni Paolo Panini Source- Arch Daily, Evan Pavka
Figure 3.1: Interior of the Pantheon Figure 3.2: Memory of Void, Jewish Museum

Source- Sound and Space, David Ramos

Figure 3.3: A concert at El Palau de la Musica in Barcelona, Spain

9
4 SOMATOSENSORY

The eye is the organ of distance, whereas touch is the sense of nearness, intimacy and affection. The
eye observes and investigates, whereas the touch approaches and feels. So when the light makes
space for shadow our other senses are sharpened including the sensitivity to touch. As explained
above in vision, people with visual impairment have enhanced sense of touch, hearing, odour and
taste. There are special wall tiles and floor tiles designed for guiding them inside and outside the
building. We can feel if a room is brightly lid or if it is dim. In the same way as we can feel the
sunlight on our skin. So light is a good method to address touch in architecture. But the skin can
sense more things. It can read texture, weight, density and temperature of matter.7
By touching fabric we experience more than via the naked gaze at it. Systems have a visual effect
however by way of touching them we feel greater additives in their construct. Hardness, depth,
Temperature those components can vary in substances that provide the same visual effect.
Extraordinary examples of a structure may be the Holocaust memorial in Berlin from Peter
Eisenman or the interior of the iWeb by using Kas Oosterhuis. Both the extremely smooth concrete
and the sprayed foam layer simply invite to be touched. Though our vision leads us there most
effective the touch is truly pleasurable our interest. In the next step, this desire can be used to offer
further impressions. Via touch associations can be stimulated. Like a pebble polished by the sea isn't
always only enjoyable to the hand, it expresses the process of its formation. It is time become shape.

Source- World Architecture, Peter

Source- World Architecture, Peter Eisenman Eisenman
Figure 4.1: Memorial to the Murdered Figure 4.2: Memorial to the
Jews of Europe Murdered Jews of Europe

7
Pallasmaa, J. (1994)
10
It is the process of recognising objects through its physical properties. The sense of touch is often
referred to as unconscious vision, providing three-dimensional information to objects. 8 Haptic
experiences occur through the movement and the physical exploration of a space. According to
Pallasmaa, touch is one of the most primal and natural experiences in architecture. In his essay
Hapticity and Time, he argues the sense of touch is a mediator between us and the world. He states,
“Touch is the sensory mode which integrates our experience of the world and of ourselves”
Pallasmaa brings up the point that all of the senses, are extensions of touch, and that all of our
sensory experiences are related to tactility. By touching materials and surfaces, we experience more
than by barely gazing at it.

8
Panagiotis
11
5 OLFACTION

Humans may be able to smell over 1 trillion scents, according to researchers. They do this with the
olfactory cleft, which is found on the roof of the nasal cavity, next to the "smelling" part of the
brain, the olfactory bulb and fossa. Nerve endings in the olfactory cleft transmit smells to the brain,
according to the American Rhinologic Society. We need only a little amount of molecules of
substance to trigger an impulse of smell in a nerve end, and we can smell more than ten thousand
different scents. If it is a new scent it is possible to remember the scent and identify it again later.
Since it is not possible to name all the odours, spatial qualities are associated. That is why the
expression “it is a hospital smell” is familiar to most people. Also the own smell of a person is so
familiar that it is possible to recognize your shirt out of 100 identical and your flat when you come
home just by taking a deep breath.
These associations could be used in architecture to stimulate emotions, to guide, or to distract. In the
same way as every city has its own smell every building could have the same. It will end up as a
difficult task, since smell is so sensitive that for example a mixture of scents in one room is not
possible. But the effect could be as great as the effort. The landscape around the building can play a
role in making an impression on the user’s mind. Natural scents are used in perfumes and cosmetics
to induce a feeling of freshness. The same might be done in indoors and outdoors. Certain landscape
elements like large foliage trees can be used for eradicating the foul smells in and around the site.
It’ll also help to reduce the noise pollution. Further, the materials used in the construction and
landscaping plays a vital role. A lot of people find the smell of earth as the first rain hits the ground
satisfying.
Sensory design also offers potential as a medium to better engage local communities and individuals
in the future of their environments. It has the power to evoke emotion and invite citizens to interact
with the landscape rather than just moving through it. Sensory design is effective precisely because
evolution connects us deeply with nature.

12
S.NO. PLANT HEIGHT SMELL MAINTENANCE
(M)
1. Tuberose 0.45-1.2 Sweet unique • Full – partial sunlight
fragrance • Well drained soil
2. Rose 0.75-1.2 Intense sweet • Full sunlight
fragrance • Regular watering
• Fertilizers
3. Jasmine 3-4 Scented fragrant • Partial sunlight
flowers • Regular watering
• Fertilizers
4. Night- 2-3 Highly aromatic • Full – partial sunlight
flowering flowers • Average watering
jasmine
5. Sweet pea 1-2 Balanced sweet • Full – partial sunlight
smell • Well drained soil

6. Magnolia 2.5-3.6 Lemony scent • Full – partial sunlight

• Well drained soil
7. Frangipani 2-8 Strong smell like • Full sunlight
honeysuckle, • Requires moisture but
gardenia, lemon dies in wet soil

8. Lily of the 0.15-0.30 Sweet fruity • Full – partial sunlight

valley lemon smell • Average watering
9. Rangoon 3-8 Very strong • Full – partial sunlight
creeper enigmatic sweet • Regular watering
smell

Table 1.1: Scented flowering plants for landscaping in India

13
Sensory landscape design is a framework used by designers like landscape architects, and others that
considers all human senses when designing a space in order to offer a deeper understanding of our
surroundings and our role within a given landscape. This includes the five senses, as well as broader
considerations such as temperature or elevation changes, the play between light and dark, or
between space and enclosure, with a focus on the user’s experience within the landscape.
Many of the early contemporary sensory landscape designs were healing gardens, often located on
hospital grounds or other institutional spaces. Plantings in these gardens should vary in height, color
and scent. Edible plants and ornamental grasses, along with small shrubs often feature prominently.
Overall designs are most effective when small, intimate spaces are created along the sides of
winding paths.
As benefits become more widely known, healing gardens are being designed for all types of places,
not just hospitals. They can also be found in botanic gardens, universities, hotels, and even places of
worship. Key lesson from landscape sensory design: understanding site context and conditions to
inform design decisions, whether that is plant selection or the details of pavement and seating.

14
6 GUSTRATION

The gustatory sense is usually broken down into the perception of four different tastes: salty, sweet,
sour and bitter. There is also a fifth taste, defined as umami or savory. There may be many other
flavors that have not yet been discovered. Also, spicy is not a taste. It is actually a pain signal,
according to the National Library of Medicine (NLM). A bitter or sour taste indicated that a plant
might be poisonous or rotten. Something salty or sweet, however, often meant the food was rich in
nutrients.9 The human tongue can only distinguish among 7-8 distinct types of taste, while the nose
can distinguish among hundreds of substances, even in minute quantities. Olfaction amplifies the
sense of taste.10 This rule is also applicable to taste in architecture. It turns out clear that there is not
a literal taste of architecture still architecture can stimulate the sense of taste. In this case together
with the sense of vision not with smell.
Vision becomes transferred to taste. “Certain colours and delicate details evoke oral sensation. A
delicately coloured, polished stone surface is subliminally sensed by the tongue” 11 So the taste in
architecture does not literally mean to kneel down and try to eat the stone bricks, but it means that
architecture can make our mouth water just by the sight of appealing materials.
Taste is constantly joined by material incitement, yet little is thought about how contact cooperates
with taste. One special case is proof that taste can be "alluded" to adjacent material incitement. It
was as of late found (Lim J, and Green BG. 2007. The psychophysical connection between harsh
taste and consuming sensation: proof of subjective likeness. Chem Senses. 32:31-39) that spatial
separation of taste was more unfortunate for harshness than for different tastes when the apparent
forces were coordinated. We conjectured that this distinction may have been brought about by more
prominent referral of harshness by contact.

9
Live science online
10
www.wikipeida.com:scent
11
Pallasmaa, J. (1994)
15
7 INSPIRING EMOTIONAL MEMORY
Trying to define emotion isn't always a clean venture. In reality, psychologists, philosophers, and
researchers have all tried to create and agree upon a precise definition of emotion. The definition of
emotion refers to a feeling country concerning mind, physiological changes, and an outward
expression or conduct. The manner and relationship between these elements is of debate among
theorists. “The only common ground among a myriad of writers is the conclusion that emotion is not
easy to define.”12 Emotion is a complicated set of interactions among subjective and objective
elements, mediated by using neural/hormonal systems that can:

• Deliver upward push to affective studies inclusive of emotions of arousal, satisfaction/displeasure.

• Generate cognitive procedures such as emotionally relevant perceptual results, value
determinations, labeling processes.
• Spark off sizeable physiological modifications to the arousing conditions.
• Lead to behavior this is often, however now not constantly, expressive, aim directed and adaptive
even though there's no unmarried definition of emotion, as defined via Peter Goldie, an emotion is
commonly complex, episodic, dynamic, and dependent.

Pallasmaa describes many attributes to a structure of existential and experiential characteristics:

multisensory enjoy poetics and fragility. Those features create a revel in no longer primarily based
on aesthetic and share but on human perception. Multi-sensory architecture advanced in addition to
the visible dominance at some point of architectural records. Drawing a good deal theoretical
discussion from Merleau-Ponty, Pallasmaa explores the extension of the senses into the architectural
revel in order to beautify the experience. “Tactile sensibility replaces distancing visual imagery by
enhanced materiality, nearness and intimacy.”13
Architectural reviews are basically multi-sensory and simultaneous, and a complicated entity is
commonly grasped as an atmosphere, atmosphere or feeling. In reality, the judgement concerning
the individual of an area or vicinity requires categories of sensing that amplify past the 5
Aristotelian senses. Sensitive artists and architects intuit experiential and emotive traits of spaces,
locations, and snapshots. This capacity calls for a specific kind of imagination, an emphatic

12
Ciadvertising
13
Pallasmaa
16
imagination. Atmospheres are perceived peripherally through diffuse vision interacting with other
sense modalities, and they are experienced emotionally rather than intellectually. 14 Emotion
through design acts as a lynchpin that facilitates a layout to connect more deeply, and to have extra
profound effect upon an occupant’s capacity and overall performance. A surrounding that connects
emotionally will have physiological, highbrow, behavioral, and even religious effect. Whilst an
emotional connection is made, someone creates a robust memory to that which prompted the
emotion. Hence, if someone sees dawn via a window which offers sunrise like they have got never
skilled it earlier than, then that character is probable to have a completely tremendous emotional
reaction to the beauty and function of that window and the character to which it bridges. Its which
means can be both defined through the design and/or interpreted by way of the individual – and this
may all synergistically create an emotional reminiscence inside the constructing occupant. A
cultured primarily based on visible proportions and splendor creates an experiential void. Haptic
architecture, on the other hand, creates an intimacy with the observer by way of stimulating the
senses via sight, touch, taste, scent, and sound. This stimulation lets in the observers to situate them
in the center, to make the experience first-hand, to respect and recognize “gradually as images of the
body and the skin.”
If your layout can inspire positive emotional memories inside building occupants, then it'll uplift
their great of lifestyles through growing their happiness and fitness. In spite of everything, designs
evoke a sure level and kind of emotion. These designs can exist on a spectrum in which on one
cease there's “flat” emotionless design that invisibly connects an occupant to something more. And
on the alternative quit of the spectrum, there's “lively” emotional layout that visibly connects with
an occupant. Both manners, the layout is a catalyst for emotion, and as a designer you'll need to
ensure your design is evoking the gold standard emotion for a given situation.

14
Pallasmaa- Space, place and atmosphere

17
Source- Memory and Mental Time Travel in Humans and Social Robots
Figure 7.1: A Model of Human Event Memory Proposed by Rubin

Source- Vasturaag
Figure 7.2: Sense of Place

18
8 SENSITIVE SENSES
The principal five senses which you frequently pay attention approximately aren't necessarily the most
effective senses that architects want to hold in thoughts as they layout. Rebecca Maxwell, an author who lost
her sight on the age of three, describes her revel in of other senses while she interacts with architecture. Some
different senses that she describes are:
 sense of pressure
 sense of balance
 sense of rhythm
 sense of movement
 sense of life
 sense of warmth
 sense of self
Plenty of recent studies are being performed each day on the connections between the senses. Whilst
all of our senses have a critical characteristic independently, additionally, they construct off of one
another to influence standard notion. Further, some humans even have a circumstance known as
synesthesia, wherein the senses combine their data in extraordinary approaches, ensuing within the
capability to listen to colorings or see tastes, for example. However, even without synesthesia,
everybody revels in some degree of overlap between the senses. for example, sight and listening to
are closely tied, as visible in a phenomenon known as the McGurk effect: if you listen a person
pronounce the sound "bah" however it seems as even though their mouth is pronouncing the sound
"fah," your brain will hear the sound "fah," although that is not the sound it's far sincerely listening
to. hearing and vision additionally paintings collectively to assist the body orient itself in the
environment, and the two senses being out of sync can result in problem with stability and spatial
reasoning. Smell and flavor offer any other famous example of senses working collectively: The
presence of a sturdy, unpleasant odor will affect how the frame perceives the flavor of an in any
other case satisfactory meals. Even bodily, the throat connects the nostril and mouth, and it's far
impossible to completely disconnect the senses of scent and taste. Other connections among senses
are less understood, but scientists are gaining knowledge of increasingly more about belief and the
way our senses work together.

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9 LITERATURE CASE STUDY

9.1 The Jewish Museum Berlin by Daniel Libeskind

The Jewish Museum Berlin carries the social and cultural history of Germany after global warfare 2
and aspired to correspond to the effects of the Holocaust on Jews in Germany. In his layout,
Libeskind claimed to combine 3 predominant concepts; the incapacity to recognize the historical
agendas of Germany without the information of the civilizational, academic and economic
contribution that turned into made via the Jewish humans in Berlin. Secondly, he desired to seize the
physical and non-secular adventure in correlation to the enjoyment of the Holocaust and its
repercussions the society of Jews and eventually he desired to make amends with the aid of the
acknowledgment, elimination and the incorporation of voids, through which Berlin can pass
however this time with humanitarian lifestyles. Just by way of staring at the shape of the shape,
already the sense of pragmatic impact is gambling a big role. The constructing is recognizable by
way of its glowing zinc partitions, asymmetrical shape of the zigzag form with daylight penetrating
through asymmetric cuts suggestive of the vile stabs on Jewish presence in Germany.
From the entrance positioned in the Kollegienhaus, although a massive naked-concrete void, site
visitors descend to an underground basement degree; from here a passage connects the vintage and
the brand new building, which has no other access, making the 2 constructions seem independent
while they may be virtually deeply interconnected. 3 one-of-a-kind underground axes, every
expressing a particular topic, connect the descending factor with special elements of the
complicated. The “Axis of Continuity, main to the exhibition galleries, symbolizes the continuum of
records. The “Axis of Emigration”, representing folks that had been pressured to go away Germany,
leads both to sunlight hours and to the garden of Exile and Emigration, wherein a matrix of concrete
packing containers includes a sequence of willow very well. Each box is tilted 12°stages from the
vertical, recreating the feel of disorientation and instability felt by way of the exiled. The 0.33 axis
results in a dark lifeless-end wherein the Holocaust tower lies; along the direction are glass cases
containing gadgets that belonged to some of the individuals killed by the Nazis. These three
divergent axes intersect; for that reason expressing the connection among those 3 different
testimonies of the German Jews.

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Source- Studio Daniel Libeskind Source- Studio Daniel Libeskind
Figure 9.1: Aerial View of Jewish Museum Figure 9.2: Interior of Jewish Museum

Source- Studio Daniel Libeskind Source- Studio Daniel Libeskind

Figure 9.3: Garden of Exile Figure 9.4: Garden of Exile

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 Source- Studio Daniel Libeskind Source- Internet
Figure 9.5: The Holocaust Tower Figure 9.6: Memory of Void

9.2 Zighizaghi, Italy

Zighizaghi is a multi-sensorial city lawn created by using OFL structure for Malia shop that stems
from a collaboration with Farm Cultural Park. The task springs from the need to create a welcoming
vicinity for the residents of Favara while simultaneously donating to the city an innovative public
area fashioned from an appropriate combination of wooden and flowers. Milia’s choice to express
its link with the sector of biology has served as the genesis for the assignment, that is inspired via
shapes that bees are able to replicate: hexagons. The project includes ranges: the horizontal (the
floor) and the vertical (the lighting fixtures structures). The horizontal stage is supposed as an
aggregation of wood elements made from phenolic plywood and knots of Okoumè and is designed
to count on one-of-a-kind configurations way to the modularity and flexibility of its geometry. The
vertical level, then again, is composed of six fourteen-sided purple prisms, distinct wonderful Pods,
made up of a luminous body and a loudspeaker. each vivid red pod has pre-mounted sounds in it
which can be caused whilst a person interacts with the legs of the pod, and the sounds are then
amplified by means of the audio system within the pinnacle part of the pod. those three-dimensional
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factors, created as a tribute to “Pfff” (the inflatable pavilion made by means of Citivision and Farm
Cultural Park), are actually used with the intention of “contaminating” the metropolis’s outskirts via
artwork and structure. way to its interactive character, Zighizaghi transforms its external area into
dynamic surroundings in which music acts as a vehicle among nature and traveler. Social
technology, architecture, and plant life turn Zighizaghi into an intimate and regenerative putting that
is prepared with an automated irrigation machine and Mediterranean plants particularly selected to
in shape with the environmental context. With the aim of making an inviting space for the humans
of the town, Zighizaghi combines timber hexagons, Mediterranean flora, and modern generation to
make the gap a refreshing change from the monotony of everyday life inside the metropolis.

Source- Contemporist Source- Contemporist

Figure 9.7: Mango Tree Figure 9.8: Interactive Red Pods
with Pre-installed Sounds

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 Source- Contemporist
Figure 9.9: Multi-Sensorial Urban Garden

Source- Contemporist Source- Contemporist

Figure 9.10: Horizontal and Vertical Levels Figure 9.11: Mediterranean Plants

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10 CONCLUSION

Some inferences from the study are as followed:-

• Presence of senses enhances the warmth and feelings in a space but moreover the absence of
senses has the power to leave us numb.
• The senses are only a medium to serve the purpose of the building better.
• Senses are interdependent on each other.
• Reduction in one of the senses leads to increment of others.
• Vision is the primary sense we respond from.
• To feel taste, it is not necessary to have a source of taste.
• Olfaction can also induce taste.
• Human intervention in a space provides sense of security.
• Kinetic sense might be the displacement of an element in the building or a sense of
movement in a space.
• A combination of artificial light and natural light can enhance the aura of a space.
• Gradual change in intensities of light is preferable.
• Dynamism is called for till it doesn’t induce stress.
• Installations for different senses can be used to mask noise or eliminate unwanted smell.
• Some of the senses user experience sub-consciously and it is completely upon the user to
choose to feel every sense or not.
• Architecture replicates nature to comfort the users.

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References
1. Arezou Zaredar, Considering the Five Senses in Architecture (2019)
2. Jasmien Herssens, Haptics and Vision in Architecture: Designing for More Senses
3. Erkin Asutay, Emoacoustics: A Study of the Psychoacoustical and Psychological
Dimensions of Emotional Sound Design (2014)
4. Ira J.Hirsh, Physiological and Physiological Acoustics
5. Yvonne Osei, Exploring Sensory Design in Therapeutic Architecture (2014)
6. Barry Blesser and Linda-Ruth Salter, Spaces Speak, Are You Listening? Experiencing Aural
Architecture (2006)
7. Jasmien Herssens, Haptic Design Research: A Blind Sense of Place
8. Pallasmaa, Juhani, An Architecture of the Seven Senses (1994)
9. Emeritus Derek Clements, The Architecture of Place and The Multi-Sensory
Experience (2016)
10. Contemporist, A Multi-Sensorial Urban Garden Has Sprouted Up In Italy (2016)
11. Inexhibit, Jewish Museum (2018)
12. Vasturaag, Urban Design Dimensions: 2.Perceptual Dimension (2015)
13. The Royal Society, Memory and Mental Time Travel in Humans and Social Robots (2019)
14. Sarah Fortkamp, Body. Emotion. Architecture. -A Phenomenological Reinterpretation
15. The 7 Senses Foundation, The Seven Senses and Sensory Diets (2015)
16. Catherine Yang, Sound and Space: Our Acoustic Perception of the World (2017)

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List of Publications

1. Pallasmaa, Juhani, The Eyes of the Skin (1994)

2. Pallasmaa, Juhani, Encounters (2005)
3. Pallasmaa, Juhani, The Thinking Hand : Existential and Embodied Wisdom in
Architecture (2009)

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