Many people now typically spend long work hours in built environments, in a detached and dispassionate environment. Such environments can be one of the factors of mental stress, restlessness, and dissatisfaction. Facilities that harbor such long work hour routines should accommodate to the occupants’ needs. Many of these built environments tend to ignore our inbuilt human need for sensory variety. Instead, many spaces are typically designed to solely be visually appealing. Engaging with only our visual senses and not the others doesn’t do the space justice; our eye works together with our body and our other senses to help strengthen our sense of reality.

Considering this, shouldn’t it be critical to design a multisensory space that harmonizes with the occupants, an affectionate space that sympathizes with the them? Perception of our environment is always mediated by our senses. A passive way to engage our senses within facilities could be through botany; it activates our sense of smell, touch, hearing, and sight. The theory of biophilia is that humans have an innate connection to living systems, such as humans, animals and plants. Using the concept of biophilia as leverage to create a multisensory spacescape can be one of the few ways we can help give more meaning and spirit to our disengaging environments.

Introducing natural elements, such as plants, indoors undoubtedly helps improve the indoor air quality but it will also help evoke positive responses in people. Intervening a living system into a facility can also encourage engagement. A series of orchestrated interventions can help reveal the influences and beneficial impacts that they have within facilities. The propinquity, versatility, and arrangements will help define the possibilities and limits of the different interventions. Analyzing the engagement that occupants have with these interventions will help develop design recommendations. These temporal interventions will be executed in the 2nd floor student lounge located within Hayes Hall. It is an ideal(?) location due to the heavy foot traffic, accessibility, and access to daylight.

The involvement and experiences that these interventions may cultivate within our built and cultural environment can be far more significant than the shell that happens to house them. Each intervention will be generate different attributes of engagement. Some would encourage occupants to tend to the plants, while others may encourage occupants to lay down with it.