Architectural Atmospheres

Architecture is increasingly understood to be a sensual, spatial experience, which means that the experience of buildings and spatial constellations is also a perception of atmospheres that are rated as positive or negative. Architects, planners, investors, and politicians must produce effects such as these according to intersubjective and communicable criteria, and not intuitively or randomly. Architectural Atmospheres addresses the growing awareness of the atmospheric dimension of architecture and provides a current, programmatic discussion of this topic. What possibilities does this approach open to architecture, what value does this knowledge have? Three essays and a conversation lead a cross-discipline discussion on the impact of architecture, and contribute to the debate first initiated by Peter Zumthor. The texts are accompanied bythirty-five color images that capture architectural moods in a variety of ways. Gernot Böhme is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Darmstadt Technical University and Director of the Institute for Practical Philosophy, e.V., Ipph, in Darmstadt, Germany. Christian Borch is Professor of Political Sociology at the Department of Management, Politics, and Philosophy, Copenhagen Business School, Denmark. Olafur Eliasson is a Danish-Icelandic artist. Eliasson incessantly explores our modes of perceiving. His work spans photography, installation, sculpture, and film. Juhani Pallasmaa is one of Finland's most distinguished architects and architectural thinkers.

What really constitutes an architectural atmosphere," Peter Zumthor says, is this singular density and mood, this feeling of presence, well-being, harmony, beauty ... under whose spell I experience what I otherwise would not experience in precisely this way." Zumthor's passion is the creation of buildings that produce this kind of effect, but how can one actually set out to achieve it? In nine short, illustrated chapters framed as a process of self-observation, Peter Zumthor describes what he has on his mind as he sets about creating the atmosphere of his houses. Images of spaces and buildings that affect him are every bit as important as particular pieces of music or books that inspire him. From the composition and presence" of the materials to the handling of proportions and the effect of light, this poetics of architecture enables the reader to recapitulate what really matters in the process of house design.

Interest in sensory atmospheres and architectural and urban ambiances has been growing for over 30 years. A key figure in this field is acclaimed German philosopher Gernot Böhme whose influential conception of what atmospheres are and how they function has been only partially available to the English-speaking public. This translation of key essays along with an original introduction charts the development of Gernot Böhme's philosophy of atmospheres and how it can be applied in various contexts such as scenography, commodity aesthetics, advertising, architecture, design, and art. The phenomenological analysis of atmospheres has proved very fruitful and its most important, and successful, application has been within aesthetics. The material background of this success may be seen in the ubiquitous aestheticization of our lifeworld, or from another perspective, of the staging of everything, every event and performance. The theory of atmospheres becoming an aesthetic theory thus reveals the theatrical, not to say manipulative, character of politics, commerce, of the event-society. But, taken as a positive theory of certain phenomena, it offers new perspectives on architecture, design, and art. It made the spatial and the experience of space and places a central subject and hence rehabilitated the ephemeral in the arts. Taking its numerous impacts in many fields together, it initiated a new humanism: the individual as a living person and his or her perspective are taken seriously, and this fosters the ongoing democratization of culture, in particular the possibility for everybody to participate in art and its works.

The Architecture and Atmosphere seminar was held in June 2014 as part of the centennial celebration of the Tapio Wirkkala - Rut Bryk Foundation. This book, the second volume of the Design Reader series, presents the proceedings of the event with contributions from leading thinkers in architecture and aesthetic theory.

Studio environments can be defined as multi-dimensional integrated production spaces where basic design trainings take place and where design issues including theoretical notions such as sociological, political, phenomenological, and other dimensions are discussed. Present approaches within the literature and social media on this topic gives cause for students to evaluate their future professions over finished and pictorial products rather than ontological and processual means. While there are many resources available on the present approaches of aesthetics and visuality of interior spaces, there is not much research available on new design methodologies, related design processes, and new applied methods in interior arcitecture. Based on different contexts, these methods of design practice have the potential to enrich design processes and create multiple discussion platforms within project studios as well as other design media. These different representations and narration methods for research in the context of interior architecture can be effectively used in design processes. The Handbook of Research on Methodologies for Design and Production Practices in Interior Architecture proposes new design methodologies and related design processes and introduces new applied method approaches while presenting alternative methods that have been used within design studios in the field of interior architecture. The chapters deal with four major sections: the design process and interdiciplinary approaches; then scenario development and content; followed by material, texture, and atmosphere; and concluding with new approaches to design. While highlighting topics such as spatial perception, design strategies, architectural atmosphere, and design-thinking, this book is of interest to architects, interior designers, practitioners, stakeholders, researchers, academicians, and students looking for advanced research on the new design metholodologies and processes for interior architecture.

How sound and its atmospheres transform architecture Acoustic atmospheres can be fleeting, elusive, or short-lived. Sometimes they are constant, but more often they change from one moment to the next, forming distinct impressions each time we visit certain places. Stable or dynamic, acoustic atmospheres have a powerful effect on our spatial experience, sometimes even more so than architecture itself. This book explores the acoustic atmospheres of diverse architectural environments, in terms of scale, program, location, or historic period—providing an overview of how acoustic atmospheres are created, perceived, experienced, and visualized. The contributors explore how sound and its atmospheres transform architecture and space. Their essays demonstrate that sound is a tangible element in the design and staging of atmospheres and that it should become a central part of the spatial explorations of architects, designers, and urban planners. The Sound of Architecture will be of interest to architectural historians, theorists, students, and practicing architects, who will discover how acoustic atmospheres can be created without complex and specialized engineering. It will also be of value to scholars working in the field of history of emotions, as it offers evocative descriptions of acoustic atmospheres from diverse cultures and time periods.

Elements of Architecture explores new ways of engaging architecture in archaeology. It conceives of architecture both as the physical evidence of past societies and as existing beyond the physical environment, considering how people in the past have not just dwelled in buildings but have existed within them. The book engages with the meeting point between these two perspectives. For although archaeologists must deal with the presence and absence of physicality as a discipline, which studies humans through things, to understand humans they must also address the performances, as well as temporal and affective impacts, of these material remains. The contributions in this volume investigate the way time, performance and movement, both physically and emotionally, are central aspects of understanding architectural assemblages. It is a book about the constellations of people, places and things that emerge and dissolve as affective, mobile, performative and temporal engagements. This volume juxtaposes archaeological research with perspectives from anthropology, architecture, cultural geography and philosophy in order to explore the kaleidoscopic intersections of elements coming together in architecture. Documenting the ephemeral, relational, and emotional meeting points with a category of material objects that have defined much research into what it means to be human, Elements of Architecture elucidates and expands upon a crucial body of evidence which allows us to explore the lives and interactions of past societies.

There is fast-growing awareness of the role atmospheres play in architecture. Of equal interest to contemporary architectural practice as it is to aesthetic theory, this 'atmospheric turn' owes much to the work of the German philosopher Gernot Böhme. Atmospheric Architectures: The Aesthetics of Felt Spaces brings together Böhme's most seminal writings on the subject, through chapters selected from his classic books and articles, many of which have hitherto only been available in German. This is the only translated version authorised by Böhme himself, and is the first coherent collection deploying a consistent terminology. It is a work which will provide rich references and a theoretical framework for ongoing discussions about atmospheres and their relations to architectural and urban spaces. Combining philosophy with architecture, design, landscape design, scenography, music, art criticism, and visual arts, the essays together provide a key to the concepts that motivate the work of some of the best contemporary architects, artists, and theorists: from Peter Zumthor, Herzog & de Meuron and Juhani Pallasmaa to Olafur Eliasson and James Turrell. With a foreword by Professor Mark Dorrian (Forbes Chair in Architecture, Edinburgh College of Art) and an afterword by Professor David Leatherbarrow, (Chair of the Graduate Group in Architecture, University of Pennsylvania), the volume also includes a general introduction to the topic, including coverage of it history, development, areas of application and conceptual apparatus.