Designing from Within: Sensual Design as Epistemological Ground for Territorial Social Innovation.

Traditionally understood as an eminently visual practice, drawing has been conceived as the translation of optical perception onto a surface. This paper advances a synesthetic reconceptualization, framing drawing and design as synaptic processes capable of engaging the full spectrum of sensory experience. Within this perspective, drawing assumes a performative and relational function, operating as a device for investigating and mapping the atmospheric dimension of places, understood as a constellation of immaterial yet perceptually tangible qualities. By exceeding its conventional disciplinary boundaries, drawing emerges as a multifaceted cartography that connects sound, touch, movement, and embodied memory, generating situated forms of spatial knowledge. The research is grounded in sensual design, i.e. experimental sensory and affective design practices -including blindfolded sound walks, poetic writing, acoustic mapping, and collaborative workshops conducted in both peripheral and historic urban contexts— aimed at exploring how urban representation can activate and be activated by sensory synapses. The introduction of AI further expands the field of inquiry, translating concise verbal formulations into evocative, oniric imagery capable of resonating with the perceptual qualities of place and articulating its intangible identity. Drawing thus emerges as both an epistemic and participatory practice, fostering spatial literacy, social innovation, and processes of territorial regeneration.