Preference 9. Multisensory, contextual aesthetics
While sight is our most powerful sense, drawing on previous experiences and information from all our senses, we read much into both what we see and what don’t see. The totality contributes to a sense of beauty.
Beauty is more than visual – it is shaped by form, sound, texture, smell, lighting, contextual resonance and experience. People value neighbourhoods that feel familiar, liveable, and emotionally engaging.
The masterplan and early phases of Greenwich Millenium Village supported the creation of a high-density urban environment that stimulated the senses. Not only were the blocks a visual feast of colour and form, but the plan allowed for nature to infuse the project, stimulating different senses across the seasons. In doing so, an entirely new, distinct and engaging neighbourhood was created that has become both familiar and liveable through time.
Places that do not feel emotionally supporting are disliked.
This contrasts with the worst forms of speculative housing development that, in every respect, offer a monoculture of use and visual and emotional experience. Here the whole scene is absorbed in a blink of the eye, and there is no depth or layering to the place. Everything, from the road to the lights, to the pavement, to the grass, to the fence and the buildings results from meeting narrow functional, regulatory and economic requirements. The need for a human place defined by visual and emotional richness is nowhere to be seen.