Atmosphere as something more than a two-Dimensional Element

It is remarkable that in contrast with other forms of art and music, the concept of the atmosphere in architecture until this day, mostly remains loosely defined. The use of the word atmosphere in an academic context is relatively new. Initially, it was used as vocabulary in a psychiatric context, and more specifically in Hubert Tellenbach’s book “taste and atmosphere”.[1] There, Hubert correlates atmosphere with smell and the climate(weather) an individual is used to, the familiar smell of the “nest”. In a way, he draws parallels with the idea of intimacy and the way it is perceived in a body engaging way.[2] 

For architecture, atmosphere could be interpreted as the initial experience of interaction between an individual and a space, it could be perceived as a concept informing the architectural qualities of a space according to Peter Zumthor.[3] It “indicates a setting’s perceptible character or mood and hence is immediately recognizable but difficult to define.”[4] For Mark Wigley however, atmosphere is architecture is seen through a different prism. For him, “atmosphere starts where construction ends”[5] and surrounds the building in the same way that air particles surround the earth. Sound, light, shadows heat, smell and humidity are a plethora of loosely defined qualities, or in that case, results, that are being produced from a static object. That very own microclimate, that in a way is produced, is contained within the very own space that formed them in the first place, making atmosphere the concept through which the space is defined.

Atmosphere then could be seen as a multi-level relationship between a space and its human inhabitants. A relationship that presupposed a condition of “energy”, both conceptually and physically defined. Atmosphere has the capacity to merge natural, architectural, cultural, social and human segments into a unique experience. Thus, liberating architecture form its autonomous constraints and give raise to its existence through the prism of existential relationships, turning the atmosphere to an integral part of the design process.[6]

There is no escape from the fact that the term atmosphere, especially in the context of architecture, presupposes, by its nature, a certain level of ambiguity. For many people, atmosphere is something personal, undefined, ephemeral, immaterial and most importantly very difficult to capture in texts or drawings, making it even more unreachable as a design concept that could be defined or analyzed. That paradox of the atmosphere being the essence of architecture, but at the same time being a concept of such difficulty, in definition, acted as the driving force for a majority of architects in the process of “enclosing more and more space with less and less material.”[7]

Atmosphere exist where there is architecture. Moving away from concepts such as the programmatic use of the space or its technical specifications, it derives from space and is in constant flux due to wear and daily use. It affects our perception of each space, even long after the space stops to exist. It is by definition a preliminary experience, an experience however that you would be willing to accept, enabling you to interpret each space with an advance array of means or as Pallasmaa in his book stated, a sixth sense.[8]

[1] Hubert Tellenbach, Geschmack und Atmosphare, 1968

[2] Gernot Bohme, The art of the stage set as a paradigm for an aesthetics of atmospheres, Cresson Publications, Nov.2012

[3] Peter Zumthor, Atmospheres : Architectural Environments – Surroinding Objects

[4] David Leatherbarrow, “Atmospheric Conditions,” in Henriette Steiner,

ed., Phenomenologies of the City (London: Ashgate, 2015), 85.

[5] Mark Wigley, Architecture of Atmosphere : Constructing Atmospheres, Daidalos #68, 1968

[6] David Leatherbarrow, “Atmospheric Conditions,” in Henriette Steiner,

ed., Phenomenologies of the City (London: Ashgate, 2015), 88

[7] ibid

[8] Juhani Palasmaa, An Architecture of the Seven Senses, (Questions of Perception), William Stout Publishers, San Francisco 2006, page 30.