A marketplace acts as a one-stop destination where people can purchase quality items at
affordable prices, with a unique shopping and dining experience. The vibrant colours, lively
crowds, and bustling atmosphere that one experiences while shopping in a marketplace cannot
be replicated in shopping malls and online shopping. Shopping has also been observed as a
therapy, contributing to physical and mental well-being.
Multi-sensory experiences involve the integration of perception of experiences through the
five human senses, namely sight, hearing, smell, touch, and taste. Understanding how sensory
stimuli, such as visual elements, sounds, scents, and textures, impact people&rsquos perception can
help enhance their experience in urban marketplaces, consequently improving customer
satisfaction. A study of the influence of our built environment on multi-sensory experience can
help architects, urban planners, designers, and policymakers identify ways to enhance the
design and layout of urban marketplaces to create more engaging retail environments. Studying
the factors influencing multi-sensory experiences can help us appreciate the intricacies of
human perception and design spaces that cater to the diverse sensory needs of individuals.
Based on the existing literature, field observations and interviews, the present study attempts
to identify the natural and built environment elements that have the potential to influence our
perception of comfort in outdoor marketplaces, followed by exploring the same according to
varied spatial typologies of urban marketplaces and the socio-economic characteristics of the
catchment population. The study shall be conducted in selected urban marketplaces in
Rourkela, Odisha. The study starts by identifying a list of natural and built environment factors
contributing to the perception of comfort in urban marketplaces from a literature review, direct
field observation (passive observation), activity mapping, user interviews, and expert opinion
surveys. Next, the study shall explore how the prioritization of these natural and built
environment factors varies according to marketplaces&rsquo spatial typologies and the catchment
population&rsquos socio-economic characteristics. As the final outcome, the study shall attempt to
develop guidelines for the design of the elements or infrastructure that are observed to be of
high priority based on the study findings and formulation of different design-based guidelines
for Indian urban marketplaces with different spatial layouts.