Smell design in public space is often a neglected part in urban design. Due to the memorability, endemicity and informativity of olfactory sense, the smell design should be integrated in urban design to shape a city’s characteristics. This article summarizes the application of smell landscape and then tries to explore the signifi cance and development tendency of the smell design in public space. Meanwhile, it also analyzes the obstacles that smell design is faced with, the most important one of which is ideological neglect and the deterioration of the smell environment. To solve these problems, smell design might need the tools and methods which are different from visual design.