Table Of ContentArchitectural
Atmospheres
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Architectural
Atmospheres
On the Experience and Politics
of Architecture
Christian Borch (Ed.)
With texts by
Gernot Böhme
Christian Borch
Olafur Eliasson
Juhani Pallasmaa
Birkhäuser
Basel
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Contents
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6 Introduction: Why Atmospheres?
Christian Borch
18 Space, Place, and Atmosphere:
Peripheral Perception in Existential Experience
Juhani Pallasmaa
42 Urban Atmospheres:
Charting New Directions for Architecture
and Urban Planning
Gernot Böhme
60 The Politics of Atmospheres:
Architecture, Power, and the Senses
Christian Borch
90 Atmospheres, Art, Architecture
A Conversation between Gernot Böhme, Christian Borch,
Olafur Eliasson, and Juhani Pallasmaa
108 Contributors
110 Index
112 Photo Credits
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Christian Borch
Introduction:
Why Atmospheres?
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Like any other social phenomenon, architecture reflects fads and fashions.
Although trends do not shift as fast as in, for example, the clothing indus-
try, certain architectural styles rise to prominence at certain times and
in particular contexts, only to be replaced by other trends and fashions.
One of the most significant recent trends is a turn towards (or perhaps
a return to) atmospheric qualities in debates on architecture and urban
space, as well as in practical architectural work. This is not to suggest that
all architecture today revolves around atmospheric dimensions – it cer-
tainly, and regrettably, does not. Nevertheless, there seems to be a ten-
dency for architects and urban planners to take seriously the atmospheric
features of spatial design. One notable example of this is the Swiss archi-
tect Peter Zumthor, who was awarded the prestigious Pritzker Architec-
ture Prize (commonly referred to as the Nobel Prize in architecture) in
2009. Zumthor is renowned for his explicit articulation of atmospheric
concerns, as is manifest, for instance, in his book Atmospheres: Architec-
tural Environments, Surrounding Objects (2006). In it, Zumthor reflects
upon what constitutes quality in architecture. Why is it that some build-
ings feel more comfortable, pleasurable, and/or exciting than others? The
answer, for Zumthor, lies in their atmospheric merits. It is the particular
atmosphere of a building that moves us and hence endows it with archi-
tectural quality (2006: 11).
But to what, then, do atmospheres refer – and, more precisely,
how do they move us? According to Zumthor – and his account is tightly
linked to his work as a practising architect – two things are important.
One relates to how we perceive or experience spaces. Thus, he asserts,
‘[w]e perceive atmosphere through our emotional sensibility – a form
of perception that works incredibly quickly’ (2006: 13). In essence, this
amounts to some form of ‘immediate appreciation, of a spontaneous emo-
tional response’: ‘I enter a building, see a room, and – in the fraction of
a second – have this feeling about it’ (ibid.). So even if a building’s full
complexity may only gradually affect and move us, we instantly sense the
building and its features upon entering it. This relates to the second fea-
ture emphasised by Zumthor, namely that encounters with buildings are
very much bodily. We innately sense buildings, feel their material-haptic
qualities, hear their sounds, see their lights, sense their temperature and
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Christian Borch
smells, etc. Zumthor is at pains not only to address these sensory aspects Introduction:
analytically but also, and importantly, to use them in his practical work Why Atmospheres?
when trying to generate particular atmospheres (2006: 21).
Interestingly, Zumthor’s conception of atmospheres is not con-
fined to the interior of a building. That is, architectural atmospheres are
not just about bodily engagement with the building itself. They also refer
to how the building relates to its environment, or rather to how it ‘becomes
part of its surroundings’ (ibid. 63, italics added). Consequently, if a build-
ing does not attempt to immerse itself in its environment, it fails misera-
bly from an atmospheric point of view. Unfortunately, this is a widespread
problem with much contemporary architecture, which appears to be driven
more by sheer profit or a will to build for the sake of building than by a
concern with how particular buildings become constructive parts of their
surroundings.
Two final comments on Zumthor are warranted here. Firstly, I
have thus far focused on him because he is widely recognised for his
atmospheric approach to architecture. However, other significant con-
temporary architects also follow this path. For example, the Japanese
architects Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa, and their office, SANAA,
produce architecture that attends to immersion, as well as to the multi-
sensory qualities of physical design. Similarly, the Italian architect Renzo
Piano once noted that before embarking on an assignment, he would visit
the site of the future building and breathe in its air. A parallel gesture
has been emphasised by the French architect Jean Nouvel in his Louisiana
Manifesto, in which he underscores the importance of architecture that
takes seriously the particular spirit of the place (Nouvel 2008). Of course,
such atmospheric gestures are not new. As intimated above, to some ex-
tent they mark a return to a previous interest in atmospheric dimensions.
Most notably, perhaps, the testimonies of Nouvel and Piano are emblem-
atic of a concern with genius loci, i. e. the spirit of place, a notion rein-
vigorated by Christian Norberg-Schulz’s book Genius Loci: Towards a
Phenomenology of Architecture (1980). In it, Norberg-Schulz made a plea
for foregrounding the particular spirit of place in the understanding of
architecture, and linked this to an existential argument for the spatial
basis of meaning and identity.
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Atmospheric architecture. The 2011 Serpentine Gallery Pavilion, designed by Peter
Zumthor, Serpentine Gallery, London, England.
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Atmospheres of contemporary ruins. Jeanne Fredac, Willy Flechsig, 2011, Berlin.
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