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Nonetheless, constructive-spatial characteristics play a
role for the effects of odours. Aside from the expansive or
constricting effects of the air quality of spaces, certain odours
emanate from building materials, from paint or furnishings,
and in open spaces, from plants and from the earth. These are
supplemented in a multisensory fashion by vision and sense
of touch. Then there are the olfactory traces of residence and
use, so that places, buildings and spaces are endowed with a
specific character formed by the totality of these components.
This character that makes a space unmistakable and identifi-
able via smell, e.g. underground stations, department stores,
manufacturing facilities, and hospitals. Individual apartments
are often recognizable on the basis of odour, and a kind of
olfactory profile can even be defined for them based on life-
style and habits (furnishings, cooking, cosmetics). As a conse-
quence, the private spheres of the various occupants become
detectable within the staircases of apartment buildings. Entire
urban districts can be distinguished from one another clearly
based on stable odour identities. And odour can travel from
room to room, a nuisance that may even trigger territorial
conflicts.
Odours are strongly persistent in memory. The merest
trace of a recognizable odour may suffice to bring a past situ-
ation to life again, after much time has passed. The charac-
teristic odour of a room, composed of various ingredients, is
grasped in an intuitive and holistic fashion as its unique atmos-
phere, and becomes present suddenly, with all of its connota-
tions. Although it is for the most part effective subliminally, it
can at times become unavoidable, an intrusive presence that is
even more intense than visual impressions, and one that may
even drive us from a room. But since aromas can also attract
us, and can generate certain spatial moods, certain fragrances
are deployed in targeted ways in specific spatial contexts, for
example in religious ceremonies (incense) or in commodity
aesthetics (fresh scents). Odour is a resource that has been
used traditionally in the art of gardening as a way of gener-