Kate McLean-MacKenzie is creating an atlas to document the world’s urban “smellscapes”.
The University of Kent researcher says smell is the missing sense in how humans record places.
While images and sounds are easily shared, smells are rarely documented.
McLean-MacKenzie began addressing this gap more than 15 years ago.
Her work involves “smell walks”, where participants record scents, their strength, and emotional associations.
The results are turned into visual maps and cultural narratives.
More than 40 locations have been mapped, including cities in Europe, Asia, and North America.
The maps reflect subjective experience rather than objective measurement.
Some descriptions are poetic, such as one New Yorker’s “smell of shattered dreams”.
Others reveal unexpected findings, including pleasant smells in extreme environments.
McLean-MacKenzie hopes the atlas will preserve how cities smell today.
She also wants people to engage more fully with their surroundings through scent.
