A Multi-Sensory Approach to Visual Hegemony in Architectural Design

Developing technology, facilitating visual information production, increasing the number of representation and sharing environments increase the theoretical and practical productions where visual information is at the center; This increase and development in vision-oriented thinking and representation environments also affects and changes people's habits, behavior, thinking and perception styles. The researches conducted by researchers from different disciplines such as psychologists, sociologists and anthropologists about how vision, visual information, visual perception are directed and supports this situation. In a discipline such as architecture, where thinking and production are mostly visual, other aspects of the space are ignored as a result of the dominance of the visual, and as a result, the spatial experience may remain within narrow limits. Considering the dominance of the visual in architecture, it can be concluded that design is more than aesthetic concerns and has many physical and mental contributions. Although in recent years architects and designers have begun to include other senses, namely the sense of sound, touch, smell, and in some cases taste, little is known about the multi-sensory structure of the human mind that has come with advances in cognitive neuroscience. It is possible to activate the multi-sensory mental structure of the human mind with different spatial productions that offer more sensory experiences for everyone, with designs that are enriched in sensory context and where sensory awareness can influence the decisions during design. In this study, a summary of the sensory-architectural design interaction is presented both when it is handled individually and, more importantly, when it is examined in multiple ways.