How sensory design brings value to buildings and their occupants

Sensory design is the orchestration of spatial stimuli in built environments, arranged to cumulatively lift the quality of experience for the occupants they serve. This article discusses how sensory design for buildings can be further refined by pulling from latest findings in the disciplinary realm of neuroscience, while also strategically leveraging advanced technologies to yield more effective buildings for occupants. By taking an occupant-centred approach, this article further explains the effects of architecture on occupants, and how it can be better attuned through sensory design for healthier mind and body connection—physiologically, cognitively, emotionally, behaviourally and spiritually. Furthermore, this article delineates how sensory design should exist as a framework for adaptive architectural systems, whereby buildings become more effective in meeting their occupants' ever-changing needs. Accordingly, all this allows sensory design to become a pivotal axis for positive change at many levels—from building, to occupant, to an overarching institutional system.