Eva Kirschbaum

Amsterdam Sensory Archive

Architecture beyond sight. 

What if architecture listened more than it showed? What if space not only appealed to the eye, but also the hand, the footstep, the breath, and the trace of memory? 

The Amsterdam Sensory Archive begins with this question — envisioning a new public typology where architecture and landscape form a continuous sensory environment. Located on a post-industrial site in Amsterdam-Noord, between the IJ River and Johan van Hasselt Canal, the project transforms a forgotten peninsula into a layered terrain of experience. 

The design grew from conversations with people who navigate the world without relying on vision — and from my own heightened sensitivity to sound, texture, and visual overstimulation. Their insights and my lived experience shaped a spatial language focused on rhythm, touch, scent, and material presence. The result is not a single object, but a connected sequence of volumes and landscapes — a space that can be explored, not just observed. 

The archive collects and shares sensory experiences rather than documents or artifacts. It includes indoor and outdoor zones, each with its own spatial character and sensory atmosphere. Memory, learning, and perception unfold across spaces that are immersive, slow, and attuned to difference. 

In an age shaped by visual saturation and disconnection, the Amsterdam Sensory Archive proposes another way of building — one that embraces sensitivity as a strength, and architecture as a medium for presence and inclusion. It is a living archive of experience, where built form and landscape merge to awaken new ways of sensing the city and ourselves. 

Graduation date: 1 July 2025
Graduation committee: Machiel Spaan (mentor), Brigitta van Weeren, Lindsey van de Wetering 
Additional members for the exam: Jeroen van Mechelen, Quita Schabracq