Urban aesthetic research continues to face several conceptual limitations, including its strong visual bias, limited cross-cultural perspectives, underdeveloped explanations of how environmental features shape emotional experience, and insufficient attention to socio-demographic differences in aesthetic judgment. Addressing these gaps, this paper proposes a multisensory theoretical framework that repositions urban beauty as an embodied, relational, and culturally mediated phenomenon. The framework is organized around three core dimensions: (1) environmental inputs, encompassing nature-based, built, symbolic, and ambient elements; (2) multisensory engagement, emphasizing the combined role of visual, auditory, and olfactory stimuli; and (3) interpretive processes, through which individuals transform sensory encounters into meanings such as beauty, coherence, familiarity, and belonging. These interpretive processes are influenced by cultural background, spatial context, and personal experience, demonstrating how aesthetic evaluations emerge at the intersection of subjective perception and shared social narratives. Although theoretical in focus, the paper draws on a broader mixed-method empirical project conducted by the researcher, comparing Oulu (Finland) and Belo Horizonte (Brazil). This larger study incorporates a survey of residents, commuters, tourists, and city-users, alongside focus-group interviews with planners, designers, architects, and activists. Insights from this project, combined with a systematic review of the literature and identified research gaps, inform the proposed theoretical model and illuminate how cultural, climatic, and morphological contexts shape aesthetic perception. The paper contributes to Urban Studies by advancing a multisensory, culturally responsive approach to understanding how beauty supports place-making and enriches the experiential and emotional qualities of urban life.

Authors:
Hossein Noroozi, University of Milano-Bicocca, Italy

About the Presenter(s)
DR Noroozi is a PhD researcher in Urban Studies at the University of Milano-Bicocca, currently working on urban beauty and sense of place with fieldwork in Finland, Brazil, and Italy.

Connect on Linkedin
https://www.linkedin.com/in/hossein-noroozi-79990719b/

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