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Designing for the other four senses means giving hearing, smell, taste, and touch deliberate weight alongside sight when shaping a building, street, or landscape. The practical answer is not to add a few scented plants or textured surfaces at the end. It is to decide early what people should hear, feel, smell, and—where appropriate—taste, then coordinate those cues with circulation, materials, safety, and access. Aaron King’s American Society of Landscape Architects article, drawing on The Senses: Design Beyond Vision by Ellen Lupton and Andrea Lipps, shows how multisensory choices can improve a place’s beauty and function while helping people with different sensory abilities understand and navigate it.
What does designing for the other four senses mean?
It means treating hearing, smell, taste, and touch as design information—not as decoration added after the visual concept is complete. A multisensory project asks what a person can detect at a threshold, along a path, beside a hazard, or inside a room, and uses materials, form, light, sound, scent, and texture to make those conditions legible.
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Outbyte Driver Updater FREEScan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →Outbyte PC Repair FREEClear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →The approach is broader than accessibility compliance, although accessibility is a major benefit. A textured edge can warn someone using a cane, but it can also give every visitor a stronger sense of where a plaza ends. A material chosen for its acoustic behavior can make a room calmer and easier to read, not merely more attractive in photographs. As the authors quoted by ASLA put it, “Sensory design can shape the beauty and function of a place – and address dangers and obstacles.”
Why should nonvisual senses enter the design process early?
Early decisions determine the surfaces, volumes, planting, equipment, and movement patterns that later control sensory experience. If sound, smell, or touch is considered only after form and materials are fixed, designers are left trying to attach effects to a space that may already be noisy, confusing, slippery, or inaccessible.
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Start with the same questions used for visual and spatial design:
- What should a person notice first? A change in paving, a familiar scent, or a shift in reverberation may mark an entrance more reliably than a sign alone.
- What information is needed for safe movement? Textured steps, handrails, and paving can communicate boundaries, level changes, or obstacles.
- Where should the experience change? A threshold can be reinforced by a new acoustic quality, a cooler handrail, a different underfoot texture, or a scent transition.
- Which cues must remain dependable? A wayfinding signal should not depend on a fragrance that disappears in wind or a sound that is masked by traffic.
Design workshops can map these questions room by room or segment by segment. Record the intended sensory cue, the users it serves, the conditions that may obscure it, and a backup cue. This makes multisensory design a coordinated performance requirement rather than a collection of artistic gestures.
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Sensory channels interact. A visual cue can trigger a remembered smell or taste, while a sound can alter how a surface or distance is perceived. Past experience influences these associations, so the same cue will not mean exactly the same thing to every person.
That variability argues for layering, not for relying on one supposedly universal signal. A corridor might combine a change in floor texture, a ceiling that alters reverberation, directional lighting, and a handrail that confirms the route. Each layer supports the others, but none has to carry the entire wayfinding burden.
The examples discussed in The Senses: Design Beyond Vision include Snarkitecture’s undulating Topographies wallpaper, Rich Willing Brilliant Studio’s approach to lighting, and perfumer Christophe Laudamiel’s layered scents evoking landscapes such as meadows and the Bosporus Strait. These are demonstrations of how sensory layers can suggest depth, enclosure, or atmosphere—not universal formulas to copy. The appropriate combination depends on the project’s users, climate, maintenance capacity, and cultural setting.
How can each of the other four senses inform construction and landscape decisions?
Hearing: use acoustic character as spatial information
Sound changes with enclosure, surface, height, and material. Hard, parallel surfaces can produce strong reflections; absorptive finishes can soften reverberation. Rather than treating acoustics as a technical issue separate from design, specify where a change in sound should help people recognize a threshold, gathering area, or quieter refuge.
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Document the intended acoustic condition in plain language—for example, “the arrival zone should sound more contained than the forecourt”—then coordinate ceiling geometry, wall finishes, paving, planting, and mechanical equipment. Avoid adding constant background sound to compensate for poor planning. A cue that masks speech, alarms, or other safety signals creates a new obstacle.
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Smell: design an atmosphere without creating an unwanted hazard
Scent can establish identity and sequence, but it is highly dependent on wind, temperature, season, and individual sensitivity. Planting, soil, rain on paving, food preparation, and ventilation can all contribute. Place fragrant elements where they can be encountered without blocking circulation, and consider how maintenance practices or exhaust could overwhelm them.
Use scent as a supporting layer rather than the only sign of a destination. Provide visual, tactile, or acoustic confirmation, and avoid assuming that one fragrance will be pleasant or meaningful to everyone. A scent strategy should also account for people who are allergic, migraine-prone, or unable to detect particular odors.
Taste: connect edible landscapes and hospitality to place
Taste is most appropriate where food, gardening, education, or hospitality is already part of the program. Edible planting, tasting events, or a kitchen threshold can make a place memorable, but they require clear separation between what is safe to consume and what is ornamental or treated with chemicals.
Label edible materials, manage hygiene, and design alternatives for visitors who cannot or do not wish to taste. Taste should enrich a program, not become an assumed requirement for belonging in the space.
Touch: make materials communicate, not merely feel interesting
Texture, temperature, vibration, slope, and resistance can all convey information. Handrails, seat edges, paving, door hardware, and wall surfaces are opportunities to confirm route and scale. Select textures that remain detectable when wet or dirty and that do not create unnecessary trip or snag risks.
Tactile contrast should be intentional. If every surface has a different pattern, the result may be stimulating but unreadable. Reserve especially distinctive textures for meaningful changes such as a crossing, platform edge, entrance, or obstacle zone, and pair them with other cues where possible.
What can the LightHouse case teach construction teams?
The LightHouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired case described by ASLA shows accessibility integrated into the material and detail decisions of a San Francisco facility. The design maximizes light and space, but it does not treat appearance as the sole criterion: materials are selected for acoustic properties, and tapered handrails and textured steps are integral elements. The organization’s current mission emphasizes independence, community, and equity created by and with blind and low-vision people.
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For a construction team, the lesson is procedural. Acoustic ratings, handrail profiles, and step textures should appear in the same schedules and submittals as visual finishes. A value-engineering review should ask what sensory function a proposed substitution might remove. Replacing a textured nosing with a visually similar but smooth product, for example, can erase a useful tactile distinction even if the color remains unchanged.
Coordinate mock-ups with people who will use the space, including blind and low-vision participants where appropriate. Review whether handrails are easy to follow continuously, whether edges can be distinguished by touch, and whether reverberation makes speech or alerts difficult to understand. The goal is not to design for an abstract “average” user but to remove avoidable barriers while preserving a coherent experience.
How can tactile paving make streets easier to navigate?
Tactile City, another example in the ASLA article, expands the idea of tactile paving beyond a single warning strip. Highly textured tiles can convey environmental information to someone using a walking stick, including the presence of street furniture, bus stops, or construction. In this model, the pavement is a communication system as well as a surface.
- Map the information people need. Identify crossings, boarding points, temporary barriers, furniture zones, and changes in level.
- Assign a limited tactile vocabulary. Use distinguishable patterns for different conditions and document their meaning for the whole project team.
- Coordinate with the walking route. Keep tactile cues continuous enough to follow, while avoiding abrupt gaps caused by utility covers, temporary works, or poorly aligned joints.
- Check the physical performance. Confirm slip resistance, drainage, cleanability, edge treatment, and compatibility with wheelchairs, strollers, and mobility aids.
- Plan construction sequencing. Protect installed cues from damage and ensure temporary traffic management does not contradict the permanent signal.
Tactile paving should not be treated as a substitute for a clear, obstruction-free route. Its value increases when the surrounding geometry, signage, lighting, and maintenance all reinforce the same information.
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How should a project team build a multisensory design brief?
A concise brief prevents sensory ideas from disappearing between concept design and handover. Include the following fields for each significant space or route:
| Brief field | What to record |
|---|---|
| Intended experience | What should visitors notice, feel, or understand at this location? |
| Sensory layers | Primary and supporting cues across sound, smell, taste, touch, and sight. |
| Functional message | Whether the cue marks a threshold, direction, hazard, destination, or pause. |
| User considerations | How blind, low-vision, deaf, hard-of-hearing, neurodivergent, mobility-impaired, allergic, or scent-sensitive users may encounter it. |
| Environmental conditions | Wind, rain, heat, crowd noise, seasonal planting, cleaning, and mechanical systems that may alter the cue. |
| Verification and upkeep | Who checks continuity, damage, cleanliness, replacement materials, and performance after opening. |
Bring this brief into planning, specification, procurement, site installation, and facilities management. A sensory cue that works at practical completion but is blocked by a later sign, covered by a mat, or overwhelmed by new equipment is not a reliable design element.
What are the main accessibility and safety pitfalls?
The first pitfall is confusing novelty with information. A dramatic texture or intense fragrance may attract attention but still fail to explain where to go. Pair expressive elements with predictable cues and test the logic with people who have different sensory abilities.
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The second is overloading a space. Continuous sound, multiple competing scents, glare, irregular textures, or crowded visual patterns can make a place tiring or disorienting. Provide quieter routes, rest points, and options to move away from intense stimuli where the program allows.
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The third is assuming that a cue is stable. Wind disperses scent, rain changes friction, construction alters acoustics, and cleaning can remove tactile contrast. Specify maintenance and seasonal review rather than treating sensory performance as permanent.
The fourth is treating accessibility as a special add-on. When a handrail, step edge, paving pattern, or acoustic finish is integral to the concept, it is easier to protect during budget reviews and substitutions. Document its purpose so the reason survives changes in personnel.
How can sensory technologies extend a place without replacing good design?
The ASLA article describes a Scent Player that emits smells instead of music and a device that converts reverberations against the skin into dialogue for deaf users. These examples show that sensory experience can be translated between channels: information normally heard may be communicated through touch, and an expected audio interface may be replaced by scent.
Such technologies are best understood as supplements. They require power, calibration, cleaning, user instruction, and a plan for failure. A device should not be the only way to detect an emergency, find an exit, or understand a change in level. Provide a nontechnical route through the same information, and make controls available to users with different motor, hearing, and vision abilities.
How can teams evaluate a multisensory concept without reducing it to a score?
Use a structured walk-through rather than a single aesthetic judgment. Follow the route at different times and weather conditions, and ask:
- Can a person identify the entrance and major destinations without relying on sight alone?
- Do tactile, acoustic, and visual cues agree, or do they send conflicting messages?
- Are warning cues distinguishable from ordinary decorative texture?
- Can someone pause, retreat, or choose a less intense route?
- Will cleaning, planting changes, temporary works, or equipment noise alter the intended experience?
Invite users with varied sensory abilities to describe what they notice and what remains ambiguous. Record observations by location and convert them into design revisions, specifications, or maintenance tasks. This is a qualitative design process; the source material does not provide a universal numeric rating system.
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What can designers learn from multisensory design education?
The paper The Anatomy of a Multi-Sensory Design Course: Happy Sound Object describes a semester-long studio organized into modules on hearing, tactile properties, taste and smell, and a combined sensory portfolio. Its value for practice is the sequence: students first isolate a channel, then combine channels and explain the resulting experience.
A similar workshop can help a project team before detailed documentation. Ask participants to describe a material without naming its appearance, map the sounds along a route, or build a small prototype that communicates a threshold through texture and reverberation. Treat the paper as a teaching reference—the accessible result is hosted on Academia.edu—not as a construction standard.
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King’s ASLA overview is the most direct starting point for the case studies and the argument that all five senses deserve critical design attention. The Senses: Design Beyond Vision by Ellen Lupton and Andrea Lipps provides the broader collection of examples referenced there. For an organizational perspective on inclusive practice, consult the LightHouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired. Confirm current editions and availability before specifying any publication or program.
What is the practical takeaway for a construction project?
Put nonvisual performance in the brief, drawings, specifications, mock-ups, and maintenance plan from the beginning. Choose materials for what they communicate as well as how they look; layer cues so no single sense carries every task; and review the result with people who have different sensory abilities. A place designed this way can be more legible, welcoming, and memorable while addressing real obstacles in the built environment.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can multisensory design work in a small renovation?
Yes. A renovation can begin with a few high-value locations such as the entrance, a stair, a reception route, or a confusing junction. Improving handrail continuity, underfoot contrast, acoustic absorption, and clear tactile cues may deliver more usable information than adding sensory features everywhere.
How do I design for people who are sensitive to sound or scent?
Offer intensity and escape options: quieter rooms, routes away from fragrance sources, adjustable controls, and places to pause. Avoid making strong sound or scent the only way to find a destination, and explain the sensory conditions in user information before arrival.
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Consistency helps people learn a tactile vocabulary, but one pattern cannot communicate every condition. Define a small set of distinguishable patterns, document their meanings, and coordinate them with geometry and other cues so the system remains understandable.
What should be included in a handover for multisensory features?
Handover information should identify each cue’s purpose, approved replacement materials, cleaning limits, seasonal tasks, and inspection frequency. Include routes and details in an accessible format so facilities staff can preserve continuity after the original design team leaves.
