The year before I left The Netherlands, I worked for a company called Multi Sensory Concepts. The reason why I was so interested working there, was the vision behind the whole Multi Sensory approach for Public spaces.
“ Public spaces are a vital ingredient of our cities. But, what makes a great public space? What is it that makes these spaces more comfortable, both psychologically and physiologically, for some people more than others?
The way we experience a public space, not only affects our state of mind, our perception of the public space itself but also our behaviour on sight.
We unconsciously take notice of things as material used, colours, sound, light, visuals. But when asked to describe what we noticed, we’re often not able to do so.
Neuroscience studies have shown that we experience emotions before we are consciously aware of them. As short-term states related directly to environmental stimuli, emotions can be thought of as strongly linked with sensory perception.
Multi-sensory stimuli shape our perception, whether we like it or not. Using multi-sensory stimuli effectively is a very delicate balance of quality and quantity, -what, when, where and how much. It is possible to shape and influence the experience of people the way we intend it to be, provided we apply the proper combination of the multi-sensory stimuli. The type, the composition and intensity of stimuli needed differs per product or service rendered”
The way I experience things in general is always with all my senses wide open. When working on a big project for Public Transport organisation RET Rotterdam CS, I could really incorporate my own way of sensing things. Working at MSC motivated me to gain knowledge about the effect of scents on our brain and I ended up going to France to study more about creating scents. Nowadays I use this multi sensory approach whilst creating a space for my clients.
