How do ambiances shape our sensory, social, and built environments? This book offers interdisciplinary perspectives to understand the profound ways in which ambiances redefine our experiences and perceptions of ordinary spaces.
The study of ambiances is part of an important trend in the contemporary urban world, where increasing attention is given to the sensitive and affective dimensions of space and experience. Beginning with an exploration of foundational concepts, the book then delves into the sensory, philosophical, and cultural dimensions of ambiances at the intersection of sensory environments and lived experiences. It explores the role that ambiances play in architectural design, urban spaces, and daily life. It engages with questions of contemporary sensibility, the sensitive experience of architectures and urban spaces, and the dialogue between the notion of ambiances and that of affective atmospheres. This book connects diverse perspectives of architects, philosophers, anthropologists and geographers to map the conceptual and practical territories of ambiances, from their roots in Francophone research to their broader global implications.
This book offers an essential guide to the study of ambiances, providing a foundational and forward-looking exploration, valuable for researchers and upper level undergraduates of architecture, urban studies, urban planning, human geography, anthropology and philosophy.
How do ambiances shape our sensory, social, and built environments? This book offers interdisciplinary perspectives to understand the profound ways in which ambiances redefine our experiences and perceptions of ordinary spaces.
0.Introduction - Ambiances: A Sensitivity to Ordinary Situations. Part
One Ambiances, sources and resources. 1.A brief archaeology of the notion
of ambiance. 2.The sensory environment and architectural ambiances. 3.The
ambiance waltz. Intermezzo 1: Dider Tallagrand. Part Two Ambiances,
perspectives and positionings. 4.The Thickness of the Present: A brief
ethno-phenomenological reflection. 5.Perceiving: Ambiances, places, and
connections. 6.Phenomenology and Ontology of Ambiances Some Clarifications.
7.Milieu, ambiance, and atmosphere: New perspectives on experience.
Intermezzo 2: Dider Tallagrand. Part Three Ambiances, dialogues and
resonances. 8.Exercises in ambiances: A journey across definitions for a
multi-perspectivist anthropology of atmospheres. 9.Returning to atmosphere.
10.Ambiance as a concept of francophone cultural geography: Challenges and
prospects. 11.Affective Inflationism and Atmospheric Competence. Intermezzo
3: Dider Tallagrand. Part Four Ambiances, sensitivity and culture.
12.Towards a therapy of ambiances. 13.The futures of our contemporary
sensitivity. 14.Sonic ambiances, intellectual ambiances: Thoreau and Ives.
15.From urban ambiances to cinema: a few reflections based on Siegfried
Kracauer. Intermezzo 4: Dider Tallagrand. Part Five - Ambiances, architecture
and place. 16.Towards a modal conception of architectural ambiances.
17.Atmospheres in formation: Affective thresholds, immersive fields, and
active boundaries. 18.Ambiances affordances / Common architectures. 19.In
pursuit of the aesthetics of atmospheres: With and beyond Böhme. Intermezzo
5: Dider Tallagrand. Part Six Ambiances, city and urban space. 20.The
ambiances are the message: Transects, projects, and urban situations.
21.Atmospheres in the Metapolitan Anthropocene. 22.The developer
over-investment in ambiances. 23.Ambiances of thought: A contribution to the
analysis of aesthetic cognition. Intermezzo 6: Dider Tallagrand.
Jean-Paul Thibaud is a sociologist and a senior CNRS research at the CRESSON research Lab (UMR 1563 Ambiances architectures urbanités).
Nicolas Tixier is an architect. A professor at the Grenoble National School of Architecture, he also teaches at the Annecy Alpes School of Art and at the Grenoble Institute of Urban Planning and Alpine Geography.
David Zerbib coordinates the research unit of the Annecy Alpes School of Art (ESAAA). He is also a lecturer in philosophy of art at the HEAD - Haute école d'art de design de Genève.
Didier Tallagrand is an artist. He has been teaching at the Annecy Alpes School of Art since 2002.
