Designing from Within: Sensual Design as Epistemological Ground for Territorial Social Innovation

Alessandra Cirafici; Giuseppe Lorenzo De Bona; Silvana Kühtz; Alice Palmieri

doi:10.26375/disegno.18.2026.13

Authors

Alessandra Cirafici Department of Architecture and Industrial Design, Università degli Studi della Campania Luigi Vanvitelli https://orcid.org/0009-0008-0378-6148
Giuseppe Lorenzo De Bona Dipartimento per l’Innovazione Umanistica, Scientifica e Sociale, Università della Basilicata
Silvana Kühtz Dipartimento per l’Innovazione Umanistica, Scientifica e Sociale, Università della Basilicata https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2208-9387
Alice Palmieri Department of Architecture and Industrial Design, Università degli Studi della Campania Luigi Vanvitelli https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9899-4223

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.26375/disegno.18.2026.13

Keywords:

sensual design, embodied knowledge, synaptic drawing practice, participatory urban workshop, AI-mediated visualization

Abstract

Traditionally understood as an eminently visual practice, drawing has been conceived as the translation of optical perception onto a surface. This paper advances a synesthetic reconceptualization, framing drawing and design as synaptic processes capable of engaging the full spectrum of sensory experience. Within this perspective, drawing assumes a performative and relational function,
operating as a device for investigating and mapping the atmospheric dimension of places, understood as a constellation of immaterial yet perceptually tangible qualities. By exceeding its conventional disciplinary boundaries, drawing emerges as a multifaceted cartography that connects sound, touch, movement, and embodied memory, generating situated forms of spatial knowledge. The research is grounded in sensual design, i.e. experimental sensory and affective design practices –including blindfolded sound walks, poetic writing, acoustic mapping, and collaborative workshops conducted in both peripheral and historic urban contexts– aimed at exploring how urban representation can activate and be activated by sensory synapses. The introduction of AI further expands the field of inquir y, translating concise verbal formulations into evocative, oneiric imager y capable of resonating with the perceptual qualities of place and articulating its intangible identity. Drawing thus emerges as both an epistemic and participatory practice, fostering spatial literacy, social innovation, and processes of territorial regeneration.

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