‘Sensing Architecture’ aims at investigating how first-year architecture students examine their learning experience through the means of building an instrument, especially one that reflects their engagement and participation in the process and function of a building. How do we use this method to assess the success or failure of their engagement? As the students construct these pieces of architecture, a number of models and drawings are made to provide explicit and implicit types of notation. Firstly, the students engage with their instruments to understand how they perform. Secondly, they design in the form of compositions, asking us to use the instrument they made and write a composition for it at the end of the semester. This will assist the students in comprehending the use of a building as a tool to assess its structural strength, aesthetic appeal, resilience to various forces, and composition of its inherent programming.