Using Sensory Design for an Architectural Exterior

When it comes to sensory design, much emphasis is placed on architectural interiors that aim to uplift occupant well-being. And this is critical to get right within a design project. But what about the architectural exterior? How can one use sensory design to create exteriors that foster the right occupant journey? A journey that is started well before an occupant ever enters a building, and a journey that is completed well after they leave.

Rediscovering the Environmental Smellscape

Have you ever thought of “smellscapes” for design? And have you ever considered that you could compose smells for the olfactory sense to promote certain responses through memory? Well, the olfactory sense is an important part of the way we experience our surroundings. An article featuring Sissel Tolaas, who is a chemist specializing in olfactory information, teaches very interesting points about how smell impacts us. In fact, Tolaas...

TRANSLATING DRIVERS THROUGH YOUR DESIGN PROCESS

As an environmental designer, how do you keep your creative edge sharp? In other words, what do you do to keep your design process fresh and innovative as it pulls from your experience, research, and skillset? When doing this as an architect, your creativity will be ever-expanding and your ability to think “beyond the box” will grow evermore genius.

Developing the ability to evolve your design process is critical not only to your...

Design Ideas: From Mediocre to Amazing

When you understand how building occupants respond to the environments they inhabit, you will have a much easier time generating architectural concepts. But what separates a good concept from an amazing concept? Perhaps this lies in your ability as an architectural designer to innovate occupant experience through your architecture. Yet, what does innovation mean in this context? And how does one innovate an experience?

It is beneficial to begin...

Does Environment Impact the Taste of Food?

Designers often ask “how does an environment impact the sense of taste”? Well, a tangible example of this can be observed within restaurant designs. After all, a restaurant atmosphere can set up expectations of how a meal will taste, and it can impact how those tastes are perceived, enjoyed and remembered.

It is interesting to think that innovative restaurant design ideas can make dining experiences extraordinary. A restaurant experience...

With the dawning of online retail and the displacement or forced evolution of places like bookstores and malls, designers are beginning to use sensory design to win out (or at least stay in the running) against their online competitors. You see, such brick-and-mortar retail stores are tapping into what the senses can yield from design, to make shopping in their business a true experience. And this experience for the senses is what limits online retailers today.

As branding expert Martin...

Poetics: More Than the Sum of Its Parts

Poetics is that moment in architecture when elements yield more than the sum of their parts. But what does this really mean? What is it that gets “yielded”? It could be, perhaps, the way architecture is able to “touch” its occupants on deeper emotional or spiritual levels. It could also be the way architecture can convey beauty together with meaning that leaves one feeling more fulfilled.

In this article, I am encouraging you to...

Understanding Cause and Effect within Your Architectural Design

In a previous article I taught you about meeting occupant needs before they arise, as compared to meeting them after they arise. This is important for effective building design, as your building needs to help its occupants meet their goals and enjoy their journey while striving to achieve them. And after all, when architecture becomes an active participant in an occupant’s journey, then their likelihood of...

ON SOU FUJIMOTO’S CONCEPT:Architecture Designed as a “Nest” or “Cave”

The relationship between architecture and the human body obviously has a long history. And the questions that arise when exploring this relationship are more than simply about finding the proper dimensions and placements within architectural space to “accommodate” a person and their behaviors within it. The relationship between architecture and the human body delves deep into why...

INTRODUCTION – ADAPTIVE URBAN ARCHITECTURE

Urban design within cities around the world has impact upon the citizens they serve. As environmental designers, it is important to continuously evolve how cities beneficially influence citizens as they live their daily lives within these urban areas. A critical way by which to accomplish this is to design urban architecture within such cities so they cooperate and collaborate together to yield a relationship of co-creation with their...