Creating Sensory Spaces: The Architecture of the Invisible

by Barbara Erwine

Overview

Creating Sensory Spaces celebrates spaces enlivened with sensual richness and provides you with the knowledge and tools necessary to create them. Drawing on numerous built case studies in ten countries and illustrated with over 85 full color images, the book presents a new framework for the design of sensory spaces including light, color, temperature, smell, sound, and touch.

This 2nd edition has been updated to include:

An entirely new chapter on Sensory Wellbeing which presents recent research substantiating the impact of sensory design on the health and wellbeing of building occupants. This chapter includes a discussion of the broad spectrum of sensory differences among people and concludes with a set of design guidelines to promote an inclusive approach to sensory design.

A new section on pedagogy which includes exercises which are useful in both academic classes and professional development to promote an embodied approach to sensory design and leverage this awareness to enrich the design of buildings, landscapes and neighborhoods.

Bridging across disciplines of architecture, interior design, engineering, phenomenology and perceptual psychology, this book informs the design of buildings and neighborhoods that reclaim the role of the body and all the senses in creating memorable experiences of place and belonging.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781032994154
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	01/22/2026
Edition description:	2nd ed.
Pages:	222
Product dimensions:	7.44(w) x 9.69(h) x (d)

About the Author

Barbara Erwine has a background in architectural design, research, and consulting. She has written extensively on daylighting, sustainability and sensory design and taught in the Architecture Department at the University of Washington. Drawing on her training in science and architecture, her work celebrates the integration of passive design with architectural place-making. She has facilitated integrated design processes for a wide range of projects, from commercial buildings to urban neighborhoods. An advocate for community-based approaches to sustainability, she helped develop one of the first US cohousing communities.

Table of Contents

Introduction. 1. The World is Flat. 2. Celebration of the Senses. 3. Light Space. 4. Somatic Space. 5. Thermal Space. 6. Acoustic Space. 7. Olfactory Space. 8. Sensory Choreography. 9. Multisensory Design. 10. Sensory Wellbeing.  11. Sensory Awakening. 

Editorial Reviews

Praise recieved for the 1st edition: 

"Modern thought has dehumanized architecture by considering buildings as either efficient machines or as beautiful objects. Barbara Erwine’s book points to a different architectural future. It may be sub-titled The Architecture of the Invisible, but this new architecture will be visibly and dramatically different."

Dr. Boon Ong, Head of Department of Architecture & Interior Architecture, Curtin University; Editor of Beyond Environmental Comfort

"By hearing, smelling, tasting, and touching architecture, Barbara Erwine’s Creating Sensory Spaces brings dynamic life to the field of environmental controls. The book makes the important and necessary case that great architecture is both sustainable and experiential."

Keith A. Simon, AIA, CPHC, LEED AP, Senior Architect, Building Exterior Solutions, Inc., Adjunct Faculty, University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture

"With luscious language, Barbara Erwine urges readers to enrich our cities and buildings with all possible forms of natural sensory experience. Not only does the book provide specifics to help new designers get started on this path, but it also offers provocative examples to challenge experienced designers to try something new."

Lisa Heschong, FIES; Author of Thermal Delight in Architecture

From the Publisher