Urban multi-sensoryscape and moving beyond visual urban experiences: a qualitative study of olfactory and gustatory dimensions in Istanbul

Beyoğlu has long been Istanbul’s centre due to its historical sites, architectural styles, and socio-spatial dynamics. Physical transformation demonstrated a tension between culinary heritage and the demands of urban strategies. The study aims to examine how a sensory perspective offers new insights into urban experiences within a changing urban environment. The study focuses on olfactory and gustatory urban experiences. As the research method, we employ “sensewalking,” a qualitative, sensory-spatial, and mobile method, to challenge conventional studies that tend to prioritise the visual aspects of transformed places. The findings showed that the foodscapes and urban scents have developed through Ottoman cosmopolitanism, globalisation-related interventions and tourism-led urban renewal. Beyoğlu served as a political medium because the displacement of local food venues and olfactory experiences reflected wider socio-cultural changes. Traditional eateries and street food vendors have been replaced by global fast-food chains, luxury boutique cafes, and restaurants aimed at tourists and Istanbul’s upper-middle class. The study contributed to theory and practice in urban design, planning, and placemaking by promoting urban analysis that uses multisensory data to avoid flattening the urban multi-sensoryscape.