从“嗅”到“景”:嗅觉景观研究方法与设计理论综述

From“Smell”to“Smellscape”:A Systematic Review of Smellscape Research and Design Methods

人、气味和建筑环境之间的相互关系,成为过去十多年来嗅觉景观研究的焦点。本文从气体测量与扩散模拟、嗅觉感知评估、嗅觉的交叉模式研究、模拟和复制嗅觉环境、人工智能与大数据研究等五个方面系统性地回顾了嗅觉景观的研究方法。结合案例,作者提出了从宏观(城市)、中观(街道)、微观(人)尺度营造城市嗅觉景观的设计方法,并指出嗅景设计中应当考虑包容性。最后展望了未来嗅觉景观的研究方向。

Smellscape explores the interrelationships between humans,smells and the built environment.The olfactory environment not only has an important role in making healthier places,but also influences the identities and experiences of a place.Unlike soundscape,smellscape is more subjectively orientated with limited measuring tools and standards.Previous reviews of studies in this field have suggested that the mainstream is to understand how people perceive the smell environment through fieldworks,using smell walking and interviews.In recent years,there is a rapid growth of smellscape research in art and humanities as well as computational science,environmental science and psychology.The emergent research starts to explore the use of scientific methods to examine specific contexts with new technologies in laboratory settings.Through a systematic review of paper abstracts in these fields between 2013 and 2020,this paper summarised methods in five directions of smellscape research including smell detection and dispersion modelling,evaluations of smell perceptions,olfactory cross-modal research,virtual olfactory environments,artificial intelligence and big data analysis in smellscape research.The advantages and limitations of each method is discussed based on the purpose and nature of data,that is,whether it is based on subjective evaluations or scientific measurements.Following the discussion,the paper discusses the design principles of urban smellscapes from existing literature.Identifying the gap that there is limited guidance on smellscape design responding to three spatial scales macro (city),meso (street) and micro (human),the paper draws from the research methods used in the field and several cases to construct a research-informed design framework for urban smellscapes.It also highlights the key objectives for each stage of the design process.For example,for site assessment,it is essential to identify existing smells and the spatial layout of the smell sources.At the macro scale,methods such as crowdsourcing and citizen science could be used to gather data for big data analysis to map out the smell-spatial conditions.At the meso and micro scale,smellwalks with mapping,interviews and scale ratings on the olfactory perceptions would help to identify wanted and unwanted smells in the context to help setting out the design brief for a detailed agenda.Reviewing the impacts of Covid-19 on environmental quality and the raising awareness of the olfactory sense,this paper also discusses at the end the need of considering inclusivity in smellscape design drawn from examples in recent museum studies where smells are used as a cue to enhance experiences for visually impaired visitors.