Quantifying the senses
Sensory experiences in the urban realm are a co-creation between the built environment, people’s behaviour and environmental factors. A central question for urban planners is how to quantify sensory perception. The question for urban professionals is how do we evaluate a particular sensescape. We suggest to move away from an aesthetic evaluation of sensescapes to a cultural approach: assessing what is there, what can be sensed, what does this mean in terms of who or what can be sensed and by whom. Such exercise should be done at different times of the day/night and week to capture as many social practices as possible and should be linked to participatory consultation processes.
