Architects are adapting to the need for more multisensory design. Chris Downey, a blind architect who contributed to the Selis Manor renovation, an apartment block for the blind, was invited in 2015 to consult for Grimshaw Architects.

With both hands plastered to the wall in front of him, Braulio Thorne, who lost what was left of his sight in 2017, guides himself slowly down the hallway of the Selis Manor. His fingers are undeterred. They travel past the cool handle of a door and then find what they were looking for: a bumpy stretch of small, glass tiles that announce he has arrived at the lift...