Safe and Sound
Service Design
London
June - November 2025
Current State - Testing in Industry
In partnership with
Andy Ho (Sound Designer)
The Brief
— Make London City Comfortable for HSPs
The term ‘Highly Sensitive Person’ (HSP) has only been popularised within the past 10 years by Professor Lionetti. HSPs, by definition, are a subset of the population who are high in a personality trait known as sensory-processing sensitivity (SPS) (Lionetti et al., 2018). According to the same study, around 20-30% of the global population is classified as highly sensitive people.
Research Insights #1
— HSP Perceive Human Voice as Most Irritating
While to many Londoners, traffic noises such as motorbike engines, sirens from police cars and ambulances, as well as buses, are the most irritating sounds on the ground, to HSPs, it could be something much closer to their daily lives. Human chatter is the most commonly mentioned irritating sound, whether in high-class restaurants, on the streets, in malls, or even in parks. These sounds are mostly from loud volume speaking, high-pitched voices, children’s screaming and sudden bursts of screams or laughs.
HSP Journaling to understand HSP perception with places inLondon
Soundscape Recording to understand sound identity in London
Research Insights #2
— Re-organise Soundscape over Add-on Interventions
"Any sound intervention will face the test of time.
It is more important to introduce good sound sources to the city."
Sound testing with Andy (sound designer partner) in London to see what are the directions on good sound source
Co-designing with Architects on tools to help creatives design environments with more awareness about HSP
Noise Mapping with HSP to understand where in London can be the pilot opportunity for re-organising sound
Research Insights #3
— Sound in City Reveals Power Dynamics and Gaps in Regulations
Urban sound exposes how architectural standards privilege “aural-typical” norms. ISO soundscape metrics reduce diverse listening experiences to numbers, overlooking aural diversity. Recognising varied ways of hearing challenges these exclusions, revealing that sound design reflects deeper socio-political biases embedded in how cities define social space.
"The access of spaces reveals authority.
Who are we designing for?"
Spatial and Sonic Intervention Prompts derived from previous sound test and workshops
Cross-disciplinary industry practitioners joined a toolkit co-design workshop to test out the tools
Legislation & Regulation limitations are being discussed
The Idea — Speculate Future of A Sensitivity-London Backcasting A Series of Practical Services
Complimentary Services that Raise Awareness of the Public towards HSP by Creating Activism Spaces; and Empower Creatives with Design Agency to Create These Spaces.
Co-Designing with HSP on the Sound Walk
and Creatives on the Makers Toolkit
HSP co-designing the soundwalk
Feedback sessions from industry practitioners
Both Services are Supported with an Online Library and Consolidated Resources
Implementation — Taking the Makers Toolkit to Real-life Testing
We have contacted the London Festival of Architecture to host a workshop programme in 2026 to introduce the toolkit to raise awareness of practitioners towards urban designs for HSP.
Request for details
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to request details and reports of this project.