2.4 Experiential Architecture Sensorial Experiences While the importance of a sensory rich environment is obvious to most, in contemporary designs, attention to the senses is usually limited to sacred spaces. While they play just as important a role in everyday spaces, they are often left out of design considerations. Touch, smell, and other sensations are key in what we call experience. They are the receptors with which we move through and understand space. These sensory signals have a large impact on our relationship and experience of an environment because they are able to physically and emotionally engage and connect us to the architecture. Although these types of sensorial qualities may not make or break the successfulness of architecture, they must remain of high importance because of their ability to reinforce an individual’s personal connection to a place. Juhani Pallasmaa, claims that our design culture has forgotten the importance of the senses in engaging our whole being- physical and emotional- in an architectural experience. This theory speaks to an experience that goes beyond a visual relationship between a person and architecture. In the architectural realm these nonvisual experiences become important in how our space is perceived, how it makes people feel and even perform. The scale of architecture in relation to the person, the sensation a hand feels while touching a handrail, or the sound a person makes on the building as they walk: all of these