Urban smellscapes: understanding and designing city smell environments

One sunny afternoon in July 2012, my family and I made our way through Paris on a very busy Metro train after cheering on the spectacular final stage of the famous Tour De France cycling race. Still in celebratory mood, we were temporarily distracted from our revelry when we realised that our station connecting us to the Gare du Nord was closed. Instead we spilled out of the train, along with dozens of other travellers, one stop earlier than planned. No sooner had the doors opened than the strangest incident occurred. I’m not sure what I became aware of first: a dry, dusty, powdery smell hung in the air; all around, people started coughing and sneezing; my nose tickled and I experienced a tingling, almost burning sensation in the back of my throat, similar to the feeling you might get when breathing in pepper. As I fought the
urge to gag and splutter along with my fellow commuters in a desperate attempt to expel whatever substance we were breathing in, I sought out other sensory information to inform me of the source of our collective displeasure, but I could not identify anything abnormal. However, as we descended from the
platform among the building rooftops and down towards the street, the source of our discomfort became more apparent.
Despite many previous trips to Paris over the years, this multi-cultural neighbourhood was not one that I had visited before. The area teemed with people; groups of men stood together outside food stores, women and children congregated outside sari shops, and stores with peeling paint sold halal meat
and unfamiliar foodstuffs. Heavily congested roads ran alongside and through the area dividing the thronging crowd, and primarily static vehicular traffic emitted fumes onto the pedestrian pavements where people walked laden with assorted coloured plastic bags. My family and I were outsiders in this area and our response to the alien odours hanging in the air reinforced this unfamiliarity.
What I had first thought might be the product of some kind of mischievous act was revealed as the combined odours of strong food spices, dust and car fumes. Such encounters are not unusual in the Barbes Rochechouart and La Chappelle area of Paris where we had found ourselves, and are further pronounced during the annual Ganesh Festival when thousands of people descend on the area to
celebrate the birthday of this popular Hindu god and camphor is burned as the procession moves through the streets (see Figure 1.1).

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