Sensewalks in Amsterdam

The sensewalks were organized as part my graduation research on the perception of the highway Ring A10 in Amsterdam. I focused here on the physical perception - the sensorial experience of the space, that includes sense of smelling, hearing, touching and seeing. I asked myself: how the visual, acoustic and physical information found in the underpasses can reinforce the perception of the sides?

Location

During the field excursion to Amsterdam, the participants were asked to pass under the highway in three locations, different in terms of typology and function: Wiltzanghlaan, Leeuwendalersweg and Erasmusgracht in Amsterdam West. Their task was to walk slowly from one side to another, crossing the highway using underpasses, describing what they experience. We took into account three senses: sense of smell, sight and hearing. The sense of taste has not been studied as it does not provide significant knowledge about the built environment. For the time-being of the research, other senses have been blocked in order to strengthen the particular sense and to avoid associations taking control over the actual experience. The sensorial experiences have been marked on the prepared maps, described and evaluated. The findings have been analysed in terms of feelings (positive, negative, neutral) intensity of the experience and the diversity of it.

Results

Conclusion

Inside the Ring, there have been much more sounds related to human activities than on the other side. On the outside we only recorded the steps of people passing by. Moreover, on both edges of the underpass, there has been a very clear gradient from the natural sounds of the city to the overwhelming noise of the highway. In the underpass it suddenly became quiet. The suddenness of the experience was positively surprising for the participants. They could hear neutral sounds of rhythmical movement of the cars passing by above their heads, which they descibed as relaxing.

The smelling experiences were similar on both sides of the highway and on each of the locations. The scents on the sides included leaves, food being cooked and gasoline. The sides did not differ much in terms of any specific findings. The fragrances were considered as neutral and not distracting. The underpass was mostly described with words such as “no smell” or “the smell of moisture”. All in all, the sense of smell was hard to investigate because of the autumn weather and the low temperature of the air which made the smelling experience much more difficult.

In terms of the sense of sight, the research showed mostly similarities between the sides in architecture style, materiality and scale. There have been a few exceptions found within the ring, where the human scale was lost, especially next to the ring, where the new middle-rise buildings have been constructed. The ring itself was perceived as a dark monotonous space. That emphasizes the sensorial experiences of a sudden transition at the edges, where bright light welcomes the participants crossing the underpass. The play between the shadow and light seen in one of the underpasses has been appreciated and could be used in the design to stimulate the perception of the users.