Enriching Place-Experience Through Materiality: An exploration into architecturally-designed ceramics to facilitate engagement and a sense of place in our cities

The paper highlights the importance of designing public realm materiality to enhance sensual involvement and the experience of place. Exploring the neurological mechanisms for perception and engagement creates a theoretical basis upon which the momentary relationship experienced between a passer-by and the materiality can be analysed. The issue is further examined using two case studies. It is contended that materiality can facilitate a heightened sensual relationship with place by expressing qualities of legibility, compatibility and unfamiliarity, enabing a haptic relationship (more impacting than that of vision) to develop.