See, smell, hear and touch, architecture designed for all senses

Mondo Education Updated on 2024-02-01

A space is not limited to appearance. Textures, smells, and sounds can also strongly influence the user's experience. On top of this, sensory architecture can transform the interaction between people and the built environment into something deeper.

A space that takes all the senses into account can elicit feelings of comfort, warmth, cleanliness, comfort, and surprise. In addition to room temperature, the texture and warm color of the wood can also provide additional comfort. While concrete is considered an icy material, you can counteract this impression by adding plants, contrasting colors, and other elements to the environment. The possibilities are endless, so we've put together some aspects to consider to help you think outside the box and come up with creative designs for the well-being of your users.

Related article: Touch it, smell it, feel it: the senses of architecture.

Our bodies and minds are heavily influenced by circadian rhythms or biological clocks, so recognizing the role of light in the environment is essential for the user's comfort. To this end, well-planned lighting design, including natural light, color, and focus, is key to improving people's mood and activity levels, which directly affect their appetite, motivation, ability to focus, and more.

Colours should also be taken into account, as they have a big impact on how we feel and experience the built environment. It's natural to associate red with warmth and blue with coolness, but here you can look at many other emotional effects caused by different colors in architecture.

Think about sound in a building, not just soundproofing and noise reduction. Different sounds can add different sensations to the environment, for example, mindfulness meditation can provide a sense of tranquility, while upbeat tunes can induce euphoria, and with a little creativity, we can make the building itself produce. The sea organ in the Croatian city of Zadar is made up of a polyethylene network and a resonant cavity that sings when the waves and wind crash against the shore. With 35 individual pipes and a total length of 70 meters, it is the largest air organ in the world.

The Airship Orchestra is a temporary work of art consisting of 16 inflatable sculptures, all supported by a networked internal motion sensor system whose characters are able to react to passers-by; As a choir, every night"Creation"A brand new sheet music.

Everyone knows the feeling that smelling a certain smell automatically carries into the atmosphere of our childhood. Scents have the power to evoke memories and also help us navigate our surroundings. Incorporating scent into the design is one way to create emotional memories and help people remember the space in other ways than just visually. For example, flowers with different scents in the landscape design, the smell of the earth, a room with artificial scents, or even an open kitchen that allows the smell of fresh food to permeate the environment.

The surfaces of floors, walls, and furniture, as well as the temperature, humidity, and ventilation of a room, determine much of the touch-related comfort. For example, a metal chair can be a very interesting element, but it can also be cold and uncomfortable depending on the weather; Hot environments can be made more pleasant and fun by the presence of cool mist humidifiers; Wind blowing on curtains can alter a room and encourage touch-based interactions. Therefore, the use of soft and malleable materials or interactive devices can be a great way to improve the relationship between the body and the built environment.

Translation: Wu Zehua.

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