Submitted by Jieling Xiao, 2026
Location
Sentosa Island, Singapore.
Designer
Serie Architects
Year
2019
Visual Credit
Photos taken by Jieling Xiao. Drawings are from the Serie Architects.
Description
Sentosa Sensoryscape, designed by Serie Architects and completed in 2019, is a half kilometre sensory walk through Sentosa Island in Singapore. The project was commissioned by Sentosa Development Corp. for use as public realm. The ecological walk is organised through six unique sensory gardens.
Three vessel structures, constructed of interwoven strands that form baskets with dilated openings, anchor the walk. Each vessel is organised around a different sensation. An upper walkway is supported by a series of hammock structures that double as seating. At night the gardens are transformed by digital art and light installations. The second vessel, Scented Sphere, features fragrant plants, with green stalks peeling away from the woven structure.
Highlights
The vessel is a porous steel vessel, accented by a ring of overhanging giant armatures that hold the scented plants, set up to feel like a forest.
Used local fragrant plants, particularly Cape Jasmine (Gardenia jasminoides), by the entrance to attract the attention and make a transition into the scent sphere.
The fragrant vessel is not simply generic “fragrant plants” but a curated planting of specific species chosen for named scent qualities and secondary uses (medicinal, culinary, textile dye), with each plant given its own small interpretive identity on site.
An added technological layer: the ImagiNite app overlays an AR experience onto Scented Sphere and Symphony Streams, with dancing butterflies by day and an interactive light show at sunset, so the scentscape is designed to be read on two registers, physical planting plus a digital narrative device tied to a “mythical superbeing.”
Scent characteristics
The noticeable scent centres on the Cape Jasmine (Gardenia jasminoides), whose flowers are called heady, with a sense a plant prompt narrowing this to zesty and sweet. The flower’s essential oil is noted as significant in aromatherapy and perfumery. Beyond this single species, the Scented Sphere vessel as an aromatic landscape of therapeutic flora and medicinal plants, inviting cross-modal interactions through touch and taste, e.g. and the Elephant Apple by the entrance.
Reference / Acknowledgement
Smellscape Catalogue: 