Sensory urbanism and placemaking exploring virtual reality and the creation of place

© 2019 and published by the Association for Computer-Aided Architectural Design Research in Asia (CAADRIA), Hong Kong. Sensory Urbanism is an experimental prototyping project exploring the potential of immersive Virtual Reality (VR) environments to support the incorporation of sensory and intangible aspects of place. The study investigates how sensory exploration of urban places can be integrated into decision making regarding the future of cities. In the past, numerous studies reported various sophisticated ‘livability’ measures, deeming to determine what makes a city a great place to live in. While a part of these measures can be quantified and be represented as text, graphs or images, most of the qualitative aspects of place are inherently abstract and sensory. These aspects have to be experienced to be understood and therefore they are extremely difficult to communicate using conventional representation means. The proposition explored in this study is that the increasing ubiquity of VR and Augmented Reality (AR) technologies can provide new opportunities to engage with the multi-sensory and temporal aspects of urban place. A mixed media approach was adopted, tapping into a temporal dimension as well as visual, aural and kinesthetic range of human senses. The paper reports on the development of the VR sensory urbanism prototype and the initial pilot study that demonstrated the proof-of-concept.