Comparative Study of Normal and Blind People’s Understanding of City: Opportunities for Multisensory Architecture; Case Study: Sara Park Located in Kashani Boulevard, Tehran

Abstract

Most spaces are designed and created based on the visual perception of humans, and blind people are less able to use such spaces. The abundance of formalism in works, educational systems, and architectural presentation methods practically indicates the specific focus on the architects' eyesight. Indeed, in contrast to this perspective - with people like Schultz and Pallasmaa - a phenomenological perspective was proposed, which does not reflect objectivism and one of its important functions, eyesight dominance. Accordingly, in order to approach the required context for multisensory design and phenomenology, which is considered a departure from eyesight-orientation in architecture, the current study aims to answer the question that whether blind people have more active senses in comparison with normal people to be able to guide the multisensory design. The research hypothesis is considering the stimuli of the recipient organ in non-visual perceptual systems that can have a positive effect on achieving the above goal. The descriptive-analytical method and SPSS software were used for ANOVA and Tukey tests. In this regard, three groups of 12 blind people, normal people with open eyes, and normal people with closed eyes (36 in total) were studied in Tehran. This study investigated the multisensory perception difference in four components of “Navigation”, “Hearing”, “Sense of Touch”, and “sense of smell and taste” by observation while moving and mapping on the map. The results indicate the obvious difference in the activity of the non-visual perception systems of the blind people in comparison with other groups. Also, the findings show that the understanding of blind people of the city can have active participation in evaluating the site, as a significant introduction to the multisensory designs, through perceiving more than three senses of “touch”, “hearing”, “smell, and taste”, respectively.