Atmospheres and Sensus Communis

Literary methods for the analysis and design of urban sites

Book chapter (2020)

Authors

K.M. Havik Situated Architecture - Architecture and the Built Environment
P.J. Teerds OLD Methods & Analysis
Research Group
Situated Architecture (Architecture and the Built Environment) (TU Delft)
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Published Date

2020

Language

English

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Faculty

Architecture and the Built Environment

Department

Architecture

Research Group

Situated Architecture

Abstract

This article questions how architects and urban planners can deal with atmosphere as a crucial quality of urban places. Their challenge is the mediating character of urban atmospheres; balancing between spatial and material arrangements and the embodied, perceiving subject, between urban places and the people using them. Following Arendt ‘s sensus communis, we argue that atmosphere requires a multi-perspectival view of the architectural or urban project. Literature provides a viewpoint to analyze urban spaces as well as to make projections for their future. A study using narrative tools to trace urban atmospheres in Antwerp’s former harbor docks will be discussed.