AHRC Sensory Cities London Workshop 23/24th October 2015

On the 23/24^th of October the first international AHRC Sensory Cities took place in London.

On the first day we had range of presentations and discussion around the importance of the senses in the built environment and in urban planning. Presentations included (podcasts will be uploaded in the next few weeks on this website):

Euan Mills (GLA) “What Really Matters in Architecture”
Des Fitzgerald (University of Cardiff) “Mental Health and Urban Life: Sensing stress”
Chris Miele (Montagu Evans LLP): “Measuring change in a changing city: Understanding London’s expansion”
Katherine McLean (artist, Royal College of Art): “Invisible, Erratic, Ephemeral: Lives of Urban Smells”
Maria Herrera (City of London) “Designing for the senses in the public realm”
Raymond Lucas (School of Architecture, Manchester University): “Sensory Notations”
Ben Townsend (Squint Opera) “Intrinsic Human Values”
Stefano Faiella (360 architecture) “Senses in the Design process – from brief to product”.
Alex Rhys-Taylor (Goldsmith College): “Fried Chicken and Flat Whites: Olfactory Agents of Demographic Change”
Caroline Pembroke & Mahbubul Anam (Whitechapel Vision Delivery Team, Tower Hamlets Council) “Whitechapel High Street Regeneration”

In the afternoon, after a guided tour through the interactive displays of the Museum of London we divided into groups to devise methods to research the senses on Whitechapel Road.

On Saturday the different groups focused for three hours on Whitechapel Road to trial their methods which were presented in an afternoon workshop. Methods included: sketching experiences, mapping sensory-temporal rhythms, evocative interviews, embodied encounters to mention a few. More in the next few weeks on this blog.