Abstract:
The streetscape, a major component of the urban public space, is used and experienced by everyone. While
multisensory streetscaping can make the streetscape more humanistic, many streetscapes have been blamed for
being oriented towards the visual sensory mode at the expense of other senses. The minimal understanding of
the tactile sensory mode, in particular, is undesirable because it is a proximal sense through which humans
interact directly with the environment and is also directly attached to human pleasure and survival. This may
partly explain why streetscapes often fail to satisfy direct human bodily needs. Motivated by a gulf in literature
at the confluence of psychology and the design fields, this paper examines how humanistic streetscaping can be
improved from the tactile planning and design standpoint using a Case of Bulawayo Central Business District
(CBD). The study follows an exploratory qualitative design with a phenomenological strategy of inquiry where
data was collected through semi-structured interviews and participant observation using purposive sampling.
Drawing from the tactile human experiences through its sub-modalities of pain, temperature, movement and
pressure, this study found that the streetscape in the Bulawayo CBD is not adequately humanistic in terms of
tactile quality. The study concludes that tactile planning and design can create a bond between the humans and
the street environment and is sure to inject humanistic characteristics to the streetscape and subsequently make
cities more adaptive to climate change. The study recommends the re-engineering of public space through the
introduction of a ‘tactile street roof’.
