Multisensory Landscape Design: A Designer’s Guide for Seeing

Multisensory Landscape Design provides an introduction to multisensory design in landscape architecture, architecture, urban and environmental design. Spatial design tends to focus on solely the visual, often treating it as the dominant sense while ignoring the other four senses: touch, sound, smell, taste. This book imagines a world where seeing is redefined in a way that encompasses all of the senses—not just the visual. This is a textbook for design students, professionals, and educators to develop multisensorial literacy, providing introductions on each of the five senses, along with exercises that demonstrate how to observe, record, and visualize them. It explores current design school pedagogy, and how we might imagine a more mindful way of teaching. The new edition is updated to address new knowledge in multisensorial research, particularly with regards to neurodivergence, new activities around mindfulness and situating ourselves in space, and the rise of AI visualization tools in design. The book is a foundational resource for students, professionals, and instructors to understand and ultimately create multisensorial spaces that are inclusive for all.