Make it Real. Make it Matter. Make it Last.
Our mission is to help places grow from their roots up, resulting in developments that people fall in love with, talk about, and return to. These are not copycat destinations. These are living, breathing environments that celebrate and sustain local heritage and identity.
We honor what's real, meaningful, authentic and deeply connected to a place and its people.
We understand that ideas are passed down by generations and every generation has a creative genius.
We are connecting to the past and the future; to each other; and to what is deeply meaningful to society today.
Your place has history, culture, and roots, let us reveal it. At Xsense we strive to connect people to what’s real about a place by surfacing its true nature. A place’s unique personal history and sense of tradition are among the elements that give authentic places roots. We help bring these elements forward — and thus create inspiring and enriching sensory experiences for your customers.
We also aim to ensure that the current experience of a place is true to its nature by building deep relationships with local stakeholders. By facilitating community outreach, cultural preservation, and education regarding current social needs, we build a strong sense of continuity.
In other words, we discover all that’s real and relevant about a place and we connect the right people (whether indigenous families or teams of architects) with this knowledge to ensure that a development expresses its archaeological, geological, sociological and biological essence.
Spend Less. Create More. Stay Relevant.
Give your offering a competitive edge that is utterly exclusive and strengthens your loving brand in a meaningful way.
Our approach is all about revealing the real, authentic personality of a specific place. We help identify the unique truths of any given location, providing developers, planners and architects as well as community stakeholders a uniquely tangible and grounded set of authentic attributes (not themes) to rally around - whether in the design process or in the experience of walking through the door for the very first time.
We serve to unify the seemingly disparate interests of a wide array of parties by working as a cultural catalyst. Our approach is flexible to the needs of individual stakeholders (from within the general public, local communities, indigenous people, governmental bodies, architecture firms and residential or commercial developers). Our ability to listen and translate what we hear into tangible, practical plans of action is crucial to the success of a project.
We don't see history as linear; it is a constantly shifting, evolving continuum and our interdisciplinary approach to historical research reflects this. While engaging with clients to design the experience of a place, we look both backward and forward - to find opportunities for the past to inform the present in ways that allow the present experience to evolve and change over time. Our approach doesn't expire or fade, it lasts.
Fostering unique and memorable experiences in every corner of the globe is what Xsense founder, Uta Birkmayer, is all about. She and her cross-disciplinary, global team of researchers, writers, ethnographers, audio-video documentarians and design thinkers work with equal aplomb in boardroom and the field. They pride themselves on their open mindedness, their cultural sensitivity, their passion for meaning. They’re a dogged and determined bunch — and they’ve delivered unparalleled results for their clients around the world.
Born in Germany, Uta Birkmayer has lived and worked across the globe, blending a hands-on hospitality foundation with deep expertise in the cultural authenticity of placemaking. Her education spans from Germany’s hospitality craft schools to Cornell and Harvard, where she studied the science and business of hotel development and design. She has worked in Japan, Hong Kong, China, throughout the Americas, and aboard cruise ships, gaining firsthand insight into diverse cultural landscapes.
Uta recognized early on that no matter how elaborate or beautiful a space is, it fails without authenticity and meaning. To address this, she founded Xsense Authentic Places in 2002—a paradigm-shifting approach to placemaking that earned her the Industry Innovation Prize from Cornell University and a Finalist award with the Urban Land Institute.
Xsense’s "Roots Up" methodology fuses the art and science of place development, ensuring that every project is culturally anchored and deeply resonant. Uta guides teams through the entire lifecycle—from visioning and design to construction, marketing, and management—creating immersive, sustainable experiences that elevate both customer engagement and financial success.
A sought-after "Authenticity Whisperer," Uta helps developers, brands, and communities unlock a place's true value, transforming its historical, cultural, and sensory elements into meaningful experiences that drive loyalty and lasting impact.