Reinforcing Balanced Sensory Cognition in Architectural Education

Although architecture is perceived by all five human senses, modern architectural education reserves a dominating role for visual perception.
This is reflected in the wide range of visual documents the students are obliged to prepare in the course of design and presentation of their projects. Nevertheless, students other sensory capacities have to be developed in the course of a balanced architectural training program.
This paper recounts the results of three experimental exercises designed to develop senses other than visual perception. First-year Students participating in the Environmental Understanding and Expression workshops undertook all these exercises. The exercises included: (i) a visit to the fruit market; (ii) describing the experience of entering a tranquil mosque from a bustling bazaar; and (iii) listening to the musical score of thee animation films without seeing them. These exercises proved to have a lasting impact on the cognition of students as the students continued to refer to them even in their later years of study. This indicates the importance of inclusion of such exercises in architectural education.