Environmental sensory design

Buildings exist to bring value to occupants, not only for their functional benefits, but also for the aesthetic beauty that they provide. As sensory design is proving, there is more to the relationship between building and occupants than people merely carrying out their daily activities within a surrounding built space – for, in the same way that people shape their buildings, their buildings, in turn, shape them. In the book The Eyes of the Skin by Juhani Pallasmaa, buildings are described as environments that are more action-oriented – that is, buildings engage by relating, uniting or articulating (Pallasmaa, 2005). Thus, buildings should not be built only to stand; they should also be built to behave. As such, the relationship between building and occupants is symbiotic, more of a two-way, dynamic, cause-and-effect dialogue. And at the root of this relationship between architecture and occupant is sensory design, where architectural experience is multi-sensory. And, according to Pallasmaa, this multi-sensory phenomenon is what contributes largely to each architectural experience that meaningfully touches its occupants (Pallasmaa, 2005).