The Comparative Study of the Factors of Sensory Richness in the garden’s transition to park in Tehran (Case Studies: Iranian Garden and Niavaran Park)

Human cognition and experience of being in the landscape are achieved through diverse sensory perceptions such as vision, hearing, smell, taste, touch, and mind-dependent senses. The importance of these senses in the landscape creates a non-intuitive connection with space, understanding aesthetics, the concept of the environment and empowering the human’s mind about the environment. Senses affect human spatial behavior and the spirit of space, due to their stimulus features. The extent and depth of the experience can create quality for the landscape, known as »sensory richness«. It not only can increase human enjoyment but also make the environment more enjoyable. This increases the variety of sensory experiences for humans as space users. This study refers to coordinate the relationship between the physical environment of contemporary parks regarding the needs and behaviors of users. This also leads to increase its sensory richness by identifying and prioritizing diverse sensory perceptions in the landscape. The present study is related to the mixed nature and the comparative method. After identifying the senses affecting the landscape through the library method, data collection and analysis method in field study will be a combination of two procedures called »Sensewalking« and »Sensory notation«. By Sensewalking method, in each case study, a specific pathway consisting of primary and secondary pathways, including sensory index elements, was selected for the study. Furthermore, according to previous research, the Hamburg Sensewalking Project by Schultz in 2014, a team of researchers and seven participants, who were masters of architecture and urban planning, were formed. The group was already familiar to walk to identify six index sensory points. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with participants during the walk, and the sensory stimuli that triggered people’s senses everywhere were identified. After identifying six sensory index points, sensory notation was performed to analyze senses. This is followed by connecting the dots on each diagram, in which a gray surface was created. By comparing the area of the painted surfaces in these six points, the sensory richness levels of each spot are determined qualitatively and quantitatively. A comparative study of the sensory richness in the Persian Garden and Niavaran Park reveals that the sensory richness of the Iranian garden, which has an Iranian pattern was well supplied. However, Niavaran Park, which is one of the old gardens of Tehran, changed to the park during the garden transition. This leads to have less sensory richness. Although because of the features of the Iranian garden in Niavaran Park such as the water axis and the row of trees, the visual and auditory preference was the same, the other senses had different priorities. Consequently, modeling the sensory richness of the Iranian garden through identifying and prioritizing diverse sensory perceptions in the landscape can enhance the sensory richness of contemporary parks. This leads to tailor the relationship between the park's physical environment to user needs and behavior. For the sake of suggestion for future research, we can address the impact of senses on the environmental quality of landscapes and their extent.