DR. VICTORIA HENSHAW

In July 2012 one of the most amazing adventures of my life begun: this was the first edition of Design With Scents, the course which I created at Kingston University London with my colleagues Jo Norman and John Ayres and which happened thank to the very first 8 students who bravely signed up for this experimental course on the sense of smell.

One of them was Victoria Henshaw, at the time Professor of Architecture from Manchester University who enlightened us as she shared her interesting area of study: scent and urban environment, her smell and the city blog and "smell walks" she organised around the UK. Victoria had been soon appointed Lecturer in Urban Design and Planning, in the Department of Town and Regional Planning, at The University of Sheffield, recently published the book Urban Smellscapes: Understanding and Designing City Smell Environments and wrote numerous articles including the New York Times which put her at the very fore front in her discipline. Today comes the news that Victoria has left us as she lost a battle with an aggressive illness.

As part of our course students create a "scent for space" solution; I remember so vividly, Victoria paired with Prask Sutton, Marketing Specialist. The two had worked on developing a scent for the students library inside our Kingston University campus. I feel so grateful having met Victoria and having witnessed her genuine passion and tenacious commitment as her creativity unfolded. Her pioneering work in "urban smellscapes" has brought great value to olfaction studies and it is an inspiration for us all. May her soul rest in peace.

Picture courtesy of Ezzidin Alwan, Kingston University London