In 2014 I published an essay of articles on urban smells dedicated to Victoria Hensaw - the Queen of Smellscapes (or olfactive maps).That article evolved one entire theory that we are loosing the sense of the smell of our "home" due to globalization. Once you have the same shops, the same bakeries, the same chain of brands everywhere, you have also a globalization of smells, which are little by little substituting and sometimes even erasing the local ones: 

"In a world of globalization and virtual living we have developed a
lack of emotional connection to what is local. We are less aware of our
surroundings and we are not fully experiencing the "materiality" of
things. Being less contemplative and less emotionally connected to a local environment although it may sound very modern and hip, it is also drifting us
away from our origins. We are loosing our identities as urban citizens. Where
we come from and who we are. We no longer recognize the smell of "home"
because we became urban nomads, modern gypsies."

Really concerned about the lost of our scent heritage I did a journey in my own town São Paulo to try to collect some local smell identity.Truth is that I have been collecting smells from every city I visit. Some I have shared here in my blog over the years. 

Victoria Hensaw's life work played a crucial role in my smell walks and made me fully understand how important it is to identify and map these s...