The sensory experiencing of urban design: the role of walking and perceptual memory

Experience is conceptualized in both academic and policy circles as a more-or-less direct effect of the design of the built environment. Drawing on an investigation of people’s everyday experiences of designed urban environments in two UK towns, this paper suggests two reasons why urban sensory encounters cannot be understood entirely as a consequence of the design features of those environments. Drawing on the empirical analysis of surveys and ‘walk-alongs’, we argue that distinct senses of place do depend on the sensory experiencing of built environments. However, that experiencing is significantly mediated in two ways: first, by bodily mobility, in particular, by walking practices: and second, by perceptual memories that mediate the present moment of experience in various ways. In conclusion, we argue that work on sensory urban experiencing needs to address more fully the diversity and paradoxes produced by different forms of mobility through, and perceptual memories of, built environments. key words: experience, architecture, sensory, mobility, walking perceptual memory