Kate McLean-MacKenzie is creating an atlas to document the world’s “smellscapes”.
The designer and researcher at the University of Kent says smell is the missing sense in how we record places.
While images and sounds are easily shared, smells are rarely captured or communicated.
To address this, McLean-MacKenzie organises “smell walks” in cities around the world.
Participants record what they smell, how strong it is, how long it lasts, and how it makes them feel.
The data is turned into visual maps and cultural stories about each location.
Since 2011, she has mapped 40 places including Glasgow, Paris, Kolkata and Kyiv.
The work highlights how smell is subjective and deeply tied to memory and emotion.
Some descriptions are poetic, including one New Yorker’s “smell of shattered dreams”.
The maps capture fleeting moments, shaped by wind, weather and human activity.
McLean-MacKenzie hopes the atlas becomes a historical record as cities change.
She also wants people to engage more fully with their surroundings through smell.
Her message is simple: smells vary across cultures and climates, and curiosity matters.
To understand a place, she says, sometimes you just need to stop and sniff.
