Table Of ContentMultisensory Landscape Design
A Designer’s Guide for Seeing
Daniel Roehr
www.routledge.com
Cover image: Daniel Roehr
First published 2022
by Routledge
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© 2022 Daniel Roehr
The right of Daniel Roehr to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with
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British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Roehr, Daniel, author.
Title: Multisensory landscape design : a designer’s guide for seeing / Daniel Roehr.
Description: New York, NY : Routledge, 2022. | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
Identifiers: LCCN 2021053865 (print) | LCCN 2021053866 (ebook) | ISBN 9781138586796
(hardback) | ISBN 9781138586802 (paperback) | ISBN 9780429504389 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Landscape design. | Senses and sensation. | Intersensory effects. | Design--Human
factors.
Classification: LCC SB472.45 R66 2022 (print) | LCC SB472.45 (ebook) | DDC 712--dc23/
eng/20211216
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021053865
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021053866
ISBN: 9781138586796 (hbk)
ISBN: 9781138586802 (pbk)
ISBN: 9780429504389 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9780429504389
Typeset in Futura
by Paratype
Publisher’s Note
This book has been prepared from camera-ready copy provided by the author.
ii
For Cornelia Hahn Oberlander,
who taught us to be persistent in our learning,
to be passionate about every endeavour we take on,
to listen with kindness and be polite,
and to remain patient and persevere,
no matter the odds.
iii
Acknowledgments
A book is always a creation of many people. Foremost, I would like to wholeheartedly
thank Michelle Gagnon-Creeley, without whom this book would not exist. It began with a
directed study she did with me at UBC about hand sketching, which inspired the creation of
a seminar on seeing not only through hand sketching but using all five senses. Michelle was
instrumental in setting up the seminar, which culminated in writing this book, and supported
it all the way as contributing author, editor, graphic designer, and motivator.
Second, I would like to thank the Seeing Environment classes of 2018 and 2020 for trying
out the seminar exercises and the many who allowed their drawings to be used as examples
for Chapter 4. I would especially like to thank the following students for their images: Jenna
Ratzlaff, Valia Puente, Mingjia Chen, Kemeng Gao, Samantha Hart, Marissa Campbell,
Fabian Lobmueller, Yaying Zhou, Wenwen Zhuang, Kathryn Pierre, Berend Kessler, Yette
Gram, Vicky Cen, Jennifer Reid, Josh Fender, Jonathan Behnke, Jacob Darowski, and Doug
Craig.
I would also like to thank Neda Rhoonia for creating the garden maps in Chapter 3,
and Feiyu Wei for her research and translations on multisensorial gardens in China. A big
thank you to Jordon Lypkie, Marissa Campbell, and Duncan Chambers for their insightful
comments and rigorous edits of the book manuscript.
And finally, my partner Jane Green, who also kindly supported me in writing the book.
v
Contributors
Daniel Roehr, MBCSLA, CSLA, AKB. Author. Roehr is an Associate Professor at
the University of British Columbia School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture in
Vancouver, Canada. He is a registered landscape architect in British Columbia and Berlin as
well as a horticulturalist. Daniel has earned a Higher National Diploma (HND) in Horticulture
and Landscape Technology from Askham Bryan College (York, England) and a BA (Hons) in
Landscape Architecture from Heriot-Watt University / Edinburgh College of Art (Edinburgh,
Scotland).
He is the founder and director of greenskinslab at UBC. For nearly three decades, his research
has focused on international living roof design, construction, and low impact development
(LID) as part of holistic stormwater management. This work is documented in his co-authored
book Living Roofs in Integrated Urban Water Systems (Routledge 2015). Since 2013, he has
been exploring how to make the concepts of LID accessible and acceptable to the public
through animated hand drawn videos.
In recent years Daniel’s research has expanded into how to teach visual literacy and
multisensorial literacy to students accustomed to using computers. Roehr is also interested in
the role of architectural hand drawing as a research tool to see the environment and to guide
design iterations, and he shares his drawings on Instagram.
He has practiced extensively in Europe, North America, and Asia. From 1995 to 2000,
he was project architect of the ground-breaking water sensitive living roof design of the
Daimler-Chrysler Green Roof Project, Potsdamer Platz, Berlin, Germany. In 2013 he was
a UBC Sustainability Research Fellow and was selected as a team member to compete in
designing the Canadian National Holocaust Memorial in Ottawa. In 2016 he received the
Killam Teaching Prize from UBC.
https://blogs.ubc.ca/drawingsdanielroehr/
https://www.instagram.com/danielroehrdrawings/
Michelle Gagnon-Creeley, Contributing Author, Research and Graphics. Gagnon-
Creeley is a landscape designer, writer, and artist based in Vancouver. She holds a
master’s degree in landscape architecture from the University of British Columbia, and a
bachelor’s degree in urban planning from Concordia University. Gagnon-Creeley’s work
critically examines landscape architecture with regard to mindfulness, design as storytelling,
decolonization, Indigenous sovereignty, and racial justice.
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viii
Contents
Preface x
Chapter 1
1
From Visual to Multisensorial Literacy
Chapter 2
17
Multisensorial Design Thinking
Chapter 3
59
Sensewalks
Chapter 4
101
Becoming Multisensorial
Chapter 5
209
Teaching Multisensorial Literacy
Chapter 6
227
Conclusion
Glossary 233
Index 237
ix
