Short description:

The Atmospheric City explores how people make sense of the feelings they get in and of urban spaces. Based on ethnographic fieldwork of everyday life in Copenhagen, Oslo, and Stockholm, it focuses on the atmospheric power of people, places, and phenomena.

Long description:

The Atmospheric City explores how people make sense of the feelings they get in and of urban spaces. Based on ethnographic fieldwork of everyday life in Copenhagen, Oslo, and Stockholm, it focuses on the atmospheric power of people, places, and phenomena.

While the predominant focus of current urban planning tends to rest on economic growth, sustainability, or offering housing, transport, and activities to an increasing number of city residents, this book offers a different take, based on recent discussions in the social sciences about how cities feel. It calls attention to the mundane ways in which urban dwellers adapt and adopt their surroundings. It argues that atmospheric cities are characterised by a fundamental porosity that affects how people relate to places. This highlights why some places are sought after while others are avoided. Through concrete examples of people being in and moving through the city, the book shows how people attune and are attuned by designed urban spaces, often at the margins of attention, when they find comfort in the familiar and seek out the unexpected.

This book is aimed at researchers, postgraduates, and practitioners interested in urban design and how people make sense of the feelings it evokes. It will be of interest to those in the fields of urban studies, urban design, planning, architecture urban geography, cultural geography, cultural studies and anthropology.

Table of Contents:

Preface

Acknowledgements

List of Figures

1. Introduction





Towards a porous way of thinking




The life-oriented city




Atmospheric spaces




Attuning to atmospheres




Exploring the atmospheric city




Outline of the book









2. Attuned relations: The sociality of atmospheres





Chasing resonance




Solitude in the atmospheric city




Being alone together




Dissonant encounters




Quiet and loud: Crowds and atmospheres




Conclusion









3. Embraced by the city: Feeling the urban environment





Atmospheric design




Feeling the atmospheres of urban design




The affective qualities of things




Environments of atmospheres past




Weathering the atmospheric city




Conclusion









4. Moving through atmospheres: Mobility and attunement





Moved by design




Perceiving through movement




Moving in practice




Moving among others




Conclusion









5. Cities of care: Nurturing atmospheres





Care in the atmospheric city




Building care




Atmospheres of care




Zones of comfort




Knowing the city, feeling for the city




Caring for plurality




Conclusion









6. The future of the atmospheric city

Bibliography