Multisensory ecological attunement. Engaging with the more-than-human through design and pedagogy.

This article explores multisensory design as a practice of ecological attunement, arguing that sensory experience can operate as a critical framework for engaging with more-than-human environments rather than as a decorative layer of space. Drawing on contemporary case studies, the paper identifies four modes of multisensory engagement: Perceiving, Inhabiting, Embodying and Imagining. These modes are then placed in dialogue with a pedagogical context through the RMIT design studio Downstream: towards an ecological interior, which used dérive, ecosystem mapping and written field reflections to examine the Royal Society of Victoria as a dynamic system of organic, inorganic, spatial and temporal relations. The studio demonstrates how sensory attention can be translated into spatial propositions through ecological and relational analysis. The paper argues that multisensory ecological attunement offers practical methodologies for developing sensory literacy, supporting students and practitioners to move from static spatial authorship toward responsive, systems-based design.