SESSION 1
A pedestrian's view of the city
The challenges of habitability and resilience are driving cities to make necessary changes. Although all components of a city are intrinsically linked, there are various approaches to dealing with changes in the complex urban system, depending on the specific focus used. One such entry point is to consider the relationship between citizens and their immediate environment, which involves determining the perceived quality of urban spaces.
Since Lynch (Lynch 1960) highlighted the importance of the imageability of the city in order to integrate the mental representations of its inhabitants, images have become essential for reporting on the perception of space. Images captured within urban areas are now accessible in regions that encompass over half of the global population (Goel et al. 2018) through Street View Imagery.
Artificial intelligence algorithms can be used, for example, to extract the semantic content of each image (Cheng et al. 2022), or calculate various indicators to qualify the usability of the space (Biljecki et al. 2021). This evolution has led to the emergence of the concept of visual city intelligence (Fan et al. 2023) in the emerging field of urban intelligence. However, this development raises questions about the way in which the sensitive perception of places is automatically qualified by an algorithm (Dubey et al. 2016): does this static qualification of places make it possible, for example, to account for the perception of a pedestrian in motion?
As summarized in (Ewing et al. 2010), the systematic study of pedestrian mobility choices was theorized as early as the 90s, using the three indicators density, diversity and design, supplemented over the following decade by destination accessibility and distance to transit to form the 5-Ds. These dimensions all aim to translate the potential of the built environment in the sense of walking. It is then possible to derive a set of scores for comparing the walkability of territories. (Lefebvre-Ropars et al. 2017) thus identifies 8 indicators, from the Walkability Index to the Pedestrian Index of the Environment, via the Walk Score, a real estate market tool.
Interesting though these measures are, they do not include the perceptual dimension of the immediate environment for the pedestrian. Yet there is a growing body of work that seeks to characterize the role of street level Urban Design Quality (Ewing et al. 2016) in the walking experience and, consequently, in pedestrians' active mobility choices (Salazar Miranda et al. 2021). There is clearly a gap between the static study of urban perception that focuses on the streetscape and the dynamic study that looks at mobility and connectivity.
New tools based on the visual intelligence of the city are re-interrogating the relationship with standard indicators and are integrated uncritically and without validation or explainability into commercial approaches. The aim of this session is to present and question the relevance of the translation of the perception of sensitive features of a place into automated analyzes and vice versa.
Session Chair : Myriam Servières, Thomas Leduc and Vincent Tourre
SESSION 2
Alienating Ambiance Induced by Sensorial Oversaturation: Unveiling the “Disneylandisation” phenomenon
This session aims to explore the challenges arising from sensorial oversaturation in today’s digital landscape, with a focus on its role in fostering an alienating ambiance within our societies. A discernible trend has emerged, highlighting the escalating exploitation and devaluation of art and music for political and economic gains, driven by the overwhelming proliferation of music, subordinating sensationalist images. This process acts as a powerful force, leading to sensorial deprivation and the ultimate erosion of our subjectivities. In essence, the body, senses, and subjectivities are not active shapers of ambiances, but are instead shaped by ambiances of alienation.
This phenomenon is indicative of what Guy Debord terms the “society of spectacle”, wherein social life is undergoing a transformation in values from “being” to “having” and even “seeming”. The roots of this shift lie in societal digital dependency, which facilitates mass production. Digital products, being intangible, necessitate the exaggeration of visual and auditive aspects to evoke a sense of touch. A striking example of this phenomenon is seen in so-called “Disneylandisation”, a technique employed to sell superficially vernacular images in tourism markets. This practice raises ethical questions, particularly concerning the intersection of nationalism and commerce.
This session seeks to dissect the mechanism of alienation stemming from sensory saturation. Alienation is not merely confined to the inhuman obsession captured by small screens constantly projecting sensational images that degrade anthropologic relationships. It also extends to the contradiction between nationalism and globalization, both of which are fueled by the emergence of ostentatious establishments, causing a disruptive discontinuity of scenery. By refining out understanding of these dynamics, we can unravel the complexities surrounding the alienating ambiance induced by sensorial oversaturation and shed light on the intricate interplay between the body, senses, and subjectivities in our increasingly digitally-dependent society.
Session Chair : Misaki GOTO
SESSION 3
Architecture and health
The preamble to WHO’s constitution provides a definition of health:“Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.”
To meet this objective, we need an architecture that takes into account the physical, mental and social needs of human beings.
What might these varied, complementary and compatible criteria be? What transdisciplinary collaborations would be relevant? Which disciplines should be involved? What forms of action?
1. How can we foster harmonious social ties? Within families, between families?
2. How can the senses be taken into account to promote physical well-being?
- Sound and auditory well-being: quantitative and qualitative, inside the home and outside, with windows open and closed.
- Olfactory well-being inside and outside homes, without chemical or synthetic fragrances
- Tactile, haptic and ergonomic well-being: materials, shapes, layouts
- Visual well-being: light, lighting, proportions, volumes, colors
3. What criteria are needed to promote mental well-being? What are the needs and the means
to meet them: places to rest, isolate, recharge, share, communicate...
This "health" home project is aimed at students and professionals from a wide range of disciplines: perfume schools, dancers, physiotherapists, psychologists, composers, acousticians, designers, visual artists, decorators, landscapers, gardeners, nurserymen, veterinarians, engineers, project managers...
For testimonials of actions completed or in progress, upcoming projects, studies, surveys, etc.
Session Chair : Catherine Schneider
SESSION 4
“Art as Document”, Opening Historical Archive to artistic registers in Architecture
Architecture research is traditionally addressed on perspectives aiming for object and author comprehension. We propose to change the research point of view from creation to reception. Inspired by the revisitation of Maurice Merleau-Ponty's idea of experience of art, we propose to gather, understand and discuss architecture throughout art production reading, and more specifically to better understand the Architecture of war. This idea also follows Hans Robert Jauss' Aesthetics of Reception, including what happens in the consciousness received and in its aesthetic fruition.
Within the scope of this session, we don't aspire to propose a new methodology, instead, we propose to collect examples, discuss cases and check the potential of art making, creative registers and art reading as a way to interpret space and architecture. We propose to study architecture through the intervening parties from its creation to its use through Jauss's Aesthetics of Reception and the Eco's Opera Aperta. And, in this sense, we understand space as a result of the duality between authors' conceptual ideas, together with the inhabitant understanding, embodiment and social behavior.
In other hand, the sociologist and philosopher Henri Lefebvre is responsible for this approach that crosses this phenomenological basis with a critical analysis of a more political and social content. In his seminal book La Production de l'Espace, Lefebvre proposes an approach based on the triad of the "perceived" space of the "physical" world, the "conceived" space of the "mental" world and the "lived" space of the "social" world, what he defines respectively as "spatial practice", "space representations" and "representational spaces", seeking with this distinction to capture different analytical perspectives on spatial reality.
So in this sense, this session wants to gather and discuss the relevance of the visual archive, and the narration archive to bring these visuality, this physicality, this experience and performativity into the hands of those who study architecture.
Session Chair : Maria Rita Pais
SESSION 5
Attuning with the World: Imagining and Making Atmospheres
The relationship between atmospheres, imagination, and architectural design is a complex one. While the built environment is often described, experienced or recalled as atmospheric, we contend that we need new methods of imagination in architectural and design practice - and in particular through making - to advance design for and with atmospheres.
One reason for this is that imaginative processes of making are powerful in helping people feel their way into atmospheres, by engaging directly with materials and their affordances, by working collaboratively with other people and non-humans, and by engaging in complex manual problem solving that requires people to attend carefully to the actual, situated conditions of their practice.
Moreover, architectural methods of visualising, drawing and modelling are intended to support design processes that focus on the structure itself more than the experience of those who might one day encounter it. Such processes necessarily reduce the built environment to flattened and abstracted propositions. While these may be imagined as atmospheric by the architect or designer, if, as Edensor and Sumartojo (2015) insist, atmospheres cannot be designed, then how can we actually develop an atmospheric attunement with the world? How might we develop an atmospheric praxis - a possibility that brings a deep conceptual engagement with the past decade of thinking about atmospheres together with the expertise and methodological rigor of architectural practice?
In this panel we invite submissions that discuss new methods for designing with, through or for atmospheres. We hope to hear from both creative practitioners who work with a concept of atmospheres in the built environment, and researchers who consider imagining or making built environments. In particular, we wish to focus on:
- New approaches to methods of imagination or design - how can we speculate about built futures atmospherically? What does an atmospheric lens or practice make possible?
- How can architecture's role as a means by which culture is produced, reinforced and challenged be approached through an atmospheric lens.
- How can we attend to and account for sensory aspects - light, sound, touch, temperature, the movement of air, proprioception and more – achieved through various architectural elements?
Session Chair : Aleksandar Staničić and Shanti Sumartojo
SESSION 6
Awakening Urban Terrain Through Translations Across Sensory Atmospheres
Sensory atmospheres in cities, invisible yet deeply palpable, have the potential to awaken urban terrains that may appear dormant, uninhabitable or abandoned. Through this awakening, the potential of the terrain unfolds to enable its future to be reimagined. Sensory atmospheres can be generated through interdisciplinary methodologies which focus on the creation of ambiance through movement and/or sound practices. However, the core challenge is that these non-visual methodologies typically do not produce visual artifacts that can be understood and processed by the urban, landscape and architectural disciplines. Are there strategies for translating from the non-visual to the visual, or are such translations even necessary? Can the language of design be expanded to allow for new modes of expression and representation that connect more directly to sensory atmospheres? These questions prompt us to consider how translations across disciplinary languages might help to bridge the gap between the ephemerality of ambiance and the physicality of the visual world. Through these translations the task of awakening urban terrain may be more effective than relying only on the visually dominated tools of urban, landscape and architectural design. The question of visual or physical dominance is reinforced by ambiance scholars concerned with attending to affective, experienced or lived spaces. According to Thibaud, it is necessary to “question how the notion of ambiance can help us to move the focus from physical space and from the organisation of architectural and urban elements to what will be the affective or experienced space.” (2015, p. ti0). The problem with the dominance of physical form in urban design is that it reduces the thickness of lived space to metrics (De Matteis, 2019, p. 2) devoid of sensory atmospheres. This issue is also brought forth in anthropologist Tim Ingold’s rejection of assemblages which he sees as a way of forcing things together, as would be the case when architectural objects impose themselves on urban terrain. In contrast to assemblages of objects, his theory of lines envisions a world made up of common threads- word, speech, song, story, handwriting, breathing, walking – that move together along lines and get entangled and become knotted but never close in on themselves, as do physical forms. (Ingold, 2015, p.5ti) Ambiance arises out of this entanglement of lines that make up the sentient life of a particular place; it is not the physical objects themselves that generate ambiance but the lines which flow from them- not birds but their chirping sounds, not streets but the movement of vehicles, not high-rise buildings but their lines of authority, not flowers but their fragrance etc. Thus the creation of ambiance through sound and movement may operate as flowing lines along which identities and materialities move together in the co-creation of atmosphere. This session seeks to bring together interdisciplinary researchers working with urban terrains using methodologies that explore translations across sound, movement and design practices.
Session Chair : Rennie Tang
SESSION 7
Ecological micro-urbanities
“A reading capable of transgressing the barriers of disciplines is essential to open the city to plural visions and capture the complexity of its continuous reconstitution and the permanent flow of its change. “
(Cities and Urbanities, Fortuna, 2020: 143)
Since the 60s of the 20th century, ecological values and the relationship with the environment have become a topic of debate in the public space of cities. The society mediated by the spectacle (Society of the Spectacle, Debord, 1972) and the consumer culture and global market associated with new technologies contributed to the development of a state of alienation of individuals (Liquid Modernity, Bauman, 2000; Burnout Society, Byung-Chul Han, 2010) that compromises a healthy and creative — ecological — interaction with 'others' and the space they inhabit.
Since the modern project, the city has been subjugated to the rules of capital, stratification, zoning, and road circulation, becoming polluted, inflexible, lacking in convivial and 'mixing' spaces. The contemporary city is a city of 'limits'; 'unequal', “closed” and “secure” (The open city, Sennett, 2006; Trust and fear in the city, Bauman, 2005) in which it is difficult to interact, explore, 'play', walk, or simply be/contemplate.
The impoverishment of the socio-spatial potential of the urban environment has been contested and criticized by practices and theories from different disciplinary fields, namely the arts (situationism, architecture, documentary art, environmental art, land art and installation), architecture and urbanism (Team X; radical architecture; (...) flexible and action architecture, J. Maria Montaner, 2017; Integral Urbanism, Nan Elin, 2006) and urban sociology (The Right to the City, Lefebvre, 1968); and currently through the intersections that these areas establish among themselves in order to construct interdisciplinary narratives that are expressed through interventions in public space. Installations, objects, actions, atmospheres, performances, etc., that promote a broader and shared reflection with “urbanites” (Sennett), the inhabitants who construct urbanity through the (inter)actions they establish daily in, and with, the space of the polis. Therefore, we seek, in this session, to find and stimulate reflections on how architects, artists, sociologists and others can intervene in the public space of the contemporary city in order to counteract cultural accelerationism that alienates the individual in the space of the global city and digital society. How can we contribute to give back the city to its inhabitants by stimulating critical interactions, awakening the creative and collaborative potential of individuals? How can certain actions, installations or interventions in public space contribute to creating “(micro)territorialities” that connect spaces, discourses, and social uses (Cities and Urbanities, Fortuna, 2020), that encourage the (re)construction of ecological micro-urbanities, that is, that reinvent or recover, in the light of new environmental and socio-spatial problems, balances between “urbanites” and the urban environment they inhabit.
Session Chair : Isabel Barbas
SESSION 8
Existential corpography
[THIS SESSION WILL ALSO TAKE PLACE IN RIO DE JANEIRO]
How can we rethink the relationship between human beings and space? How can we question the mutations of the sensitive environment through our daily practices? What dimension of atmospheric affectivity is produced when we interact in/with space? And how do ambiances affect us? These are questions that raise the issue of the sensitive dimension of existence in order to explore the aesthetic experience of various forms of life in contemporary cities. Following Jean-Paul Thibaud’s theoretical suggestion, we are interested in debating with researchers who are interested in reflecting on urban spaces from the “vital and emotional power of everyday environments” in order to understand the diverse and multiple tonalities of the streets. Tons that are also expressions of a “poetics of space” (P. Sansot) in which bodies immerse themselves, producing a sensitive experience and, therefore, we need to observe how spaces are perceived and how individuals characterise them atmospherically through experimental practices. Our proposal is therefore to “think with” (De certeau), in the intermediate place (Lisbon-Rio), the bodily aesthetic experience (G. Böhme) as an actor of places, landscapes and routes through actions such as walks, flânerie, musical itineraries, artivism, walking, etc.
hus, our proposal is to think-with, in the in-between place (Lisbon-Rio), the aesthetic bodily experience (G. Böhme) as an actor in places, landscapes and itineraries through actions such as walks, flânerie, musical itineraries, artivism, walking, etc. Actions to be interpreted as signs of a poetic reconfiguration of urban tonalities in a production of “temporary affective zones” that constitute existential cartographies, putting the power of corporeality back at the center in synergy with urban sensoriality. Temporary affective zones need to be thought of as an expression of atmospheric and tonal qualities that will be a manifestation of a feeling, an emotion that emanates from the lived space and a resonance of the perceived space in which the ephemeral experience is consumed. We invite researchers to present interdisciplinary proposals for this session in the form of theoretical contributions, methods, case studies, in order to activate a moment of exchange and suggestion of ideas for thinking about environments from the point of view of emotional and affective cartographies derived from bodily and experiential practices.
Session Chair : Fabio La Rocca and Cíntia Sanmartin Fernandes
SESSION 9
Fiction as research
The interest in using narrative to fabricate space has given rise to a number of works, but the question of fictional narrative in this context has been addressed less frequently. Undoubtedly this is because narrative has been used to collect information about a given place, to translate planning issues into a language comprehensible to all, and to democratise debates by opening them up to non-technical rhetorical styles. Narrative is, first and foremost, a testimony, an explanation by other means, the true word.
And yet, the places where we live, the urban materialities we experience, the ambiances that emerge at any given place and time, and the urban realities that generate our practices are both products and producers of fiction. In the wake of works on biographical illusion and critical thinking on literary or autobiographical auto-fiction, an emerging series of presumptions could lead us to think that we too are characters or fictional beings, whether as users of space, experts in urban design, or scholars of ambiances and urban situations.
Based on this premise, this session of the 5th International Congress on Ambiances wishes to address the research conducted on ambiances and urban situations through the prism of fiction in the following three ways:
Fiction as a means of inquiry. This involves cultural and artistic productions that can be used in research on ambiances. Literature, film, graphic novels, video games are specific vectors that have also become trusted sources for urban research. What do these fictions tell us about ambiances? How does their status differ from other sources that scholars use? Are fictions testimonies like any other? Do they provide access to some sort of archive of representations of urban ambiances? At another level, are they a way of approaching the dimensions of the urban experience that exceed the situations we usually enunciate, like the perfumer in Patrick Süskind’s Perfume, whose sensitive nose grants us access to urban ambiances that we do not detect in our ordinary practices?
Fiction as an analytical matrix. From the counterfactual narratives used in the new economic history to the methodological fictions set forth by Jablonka, fiction has been deployed to test hypothetical interpretations and subject analyses to verification. But these methodological fictions can also serve to explore possible worlds that could come about if the data were this or that. In such cases, fiction helps “model” reality to envision futures, thereby contributing to renewed exercises in entertaining prospects and thinking seriously about history as a field of possibilities. Will such efforts reflect how these analytical modes can be activated in research into ambiances or design practices?
Fiction as a mode of existence. Fiction also allows research to exist in a different way from the canonical regimes of scholarly writing. This is less a question of dwelling on the similarities between research and fiction, a comparative poetics of scholarly and fictional writing, than of looking at experiments in fictionalizing the products of research that have sought to make us experience the sensorial aspects of their investigations, to translate the ambiances of situations that have been studied and designed, and to feed our urban and geographical imaginations.
Whatever the path taken, we are looking for contributions that consider ambiances and urban situations on the basis of explicit disciplines while nevertheless remaining open to others, whether in the humanities (e.g. the subgenre of climate fiction), the arts, or the social sciences (such as the history of possibilities or retro-prospective studies, among others).
Session Chair : Laurent Devisme, Laurent Matthey and Nicolas Tixier
SESSION 10
Images and the Automation of Sense
This panel will challenge the alleged primacy of the ‘physical’ world and the implicit homogenisation that a non-critical adoption of automation technologies (i.e., the so-called artificial intelligence) entails. While we engage with a world replete with capacities, tendencies, and values and not with an aggregate of objects, the automation of perception advocated by recent developments in artificial intelligence perpetuates a paralysing schism: perception is separated from action. In this panel the emphasis will be placed on the modes of semiotisation, where experience (perception and action as one) returns the body to a process field of exteriority. Sensibility introduces an aleatory moment into the development of thought and turns contingency into the very condition for thinking, that itself cannot be reduced to the analytical prerequisites of datafication.
What, then, does artificial intelligence automate? In the most straightforward manner, this panel will assume that artificial intelligence automates perception, but to achieve that, it needs to rely first on a perception that is separated from action. To account for a perception that can (potentially) be separated from action, we need to, counterintuitively, destabilise perception itself; and to achieve such a destabilising move, this panel will focus on philosopher Gilbert Simondon and a part of his work that is only recently gaining traction: his provocative understanding of images as outlined in his recently translated Imagination and Invention. In a nutshell, Simondon wishes to provide an account of a genetic unity between distinct phases of individuation that are bound together by the transductive dynamism of the image. At the core of his concerns is precisely the problem of the relation of imagination and invention to perception itself.
If to think differently one has to feel differently, then this panel will place focus on processes of imagi(ni)ng (as the inventive potential of an imagistic cycle) that can become a transindividuating activity that modulates sense. More specifically, it will open to contributions that bring together Simondon’s broader philosophical concerns on individuation, information and technical objects, with his work on images, and crucially with the consequences that this would have for architectural thinking and doing. In addition, we welcome contributions that wish to challenge the established representational and annotational principles and practices within architecture (and design) discourses, especially as they themselves become increasingly optimised through automation technologies. Finally, we opt for paper proposals that attempt to destabilise the conventional approaches to the role of images, imagination, creation, and invention in architectural design (and its pedagogies), focusing not on the solipsistic genius but on the relationality of a continuously sustained ignorance: from the optimised egological to the sensible ecological.
Session Chair : Stavros Kousoulas and Andrej Radman
SESSION 11
Immersive experience as a scientific, creative and pedagogical tool
The aim of this thematic session is to explore atmospheres in movement, focusing on the concept of immersive long-term experience such as the augmented soundwalk, considered as a scientific, creative and pedagogical tool. We use the term ‘augmented’ in a double meaning, on one hand, the use of technologies that help us to amplify or augment the feeling of our bodies; on the other hand, the possibility of inhabiting possible worlds thanks to the activation of the imagination through attentive listening. The soundwalk, with its several complementary techniques, is actually one of the most complex tools for exploring the city's soundscape. From the first proposals by Hildegard Westerkamp until today’s theoretical and practical proposals, the interest has been nothing but growth and development. This potential of the soundwalk is also captured in the ISO standard, which recognizes in a more technical framework the soundscape as "a sound environment (or sonic environment) with emphasis on how it is perceived and understood by the individual, or by a society" [International Organization for Standardization (2014). Acoustics—Soundscape—Part 1: Definition and conceptual framework (ISO Standard No. 12913‐1:2014)]. In this case it is understood in a broader framework, in addition to being used as a data collection tool, it is invited to be explored also as a transversal tool that connects creation and pedagogy .
For this session we are invited to explore atmosfere through the act of sharing a place from a multiple relationship with the context, the imagination, creation, sound experiences, daily experiences, happenings, casual interaction with the inhabitants, pedagogical experiences. This can be synthesize with the Francesco Careri's proposal "losing time to gain space". Careri adds: "we know that whoever goes around setting a goal and a definite time loses all the possibilities that derive offers" [Careri, F. (2016). Pasear, detenerse. Gustavo Gili, p. 127].
At this point, there are some interesting questions to invite to reflect:
● How to involve the population in an open and non-directed research, to collect spontaneity, perception and feelings towards the soundscape?
● How can we analyze the rhythms and urban choreographies of situated space by situating ourselves as researchers in the environment?
● How to represent and share the results?
● How to explore the body as a witness to the memory of a sense of place, culture, rhythm, and rituals (the importance of heritage in the identity of place)?
● How to actively involve people in the assessment and creation of a collective environment?
● How, through collective listening, is it possible to understand and share the affective aspects and emotions experienced in the place?
● How collective action helps us to understand the impact of transitory, emergent and unexpected events, of unforeseen resonances determined by the fact of being in a place?
● And, finally, how to approach augmented soundwalk as scientific, creative and pedagogical tools?
Session Chair : Cristina Palmese, José Luis Carles and Alejandro Rodríguez Antolín
SESSION 12
At the heart of architectural and urban design, mastering complexity proves essential. The instrumentation of ambiances becomes a crucial element for understanding and shaping spaces. This thematic session focuses on the significance of conceptual and technical tools as supports for mastering complexity, particularly in the context of the spatialisation of the sensible at the early stages of the project. The latest technological advances in terms of immersive virtual models and interactive modelling (AR-VR- MR) confirm the trend towards the integration of sensitivity and spatial practices upstream in the design of living spaces, certainly in an intuitive way but which questions notions to be developed urgently to think about project.
We invite contributions from researchers, architects, urban planners, and practitioners on the following axes:
• Theoretical Concepts: Sensitive topologies, affordances in virtual environments, AI-assisted design narratives, interface design, and usage design applied to architecture are examples of new theoretical concepts that are becoming necessary in design or at least merit discussion.
• Topological Tools and Technologies: Exploration of tools, digital technologies, topological modeling methods, and innovative approaches as key instruments for mastering the complexity of ambiances.
• Integration of the Sensible with a Topological Approach: Analysis of how these conceptual and technical tools facilitate the integration of the sensible from the early stages of architectural and urban design.
• Sensory Experiences: Study of user sensory experiences in architectural and urban spaces, emphasizing the spatialization of the sensible through a topological perspective, facilitated by appropriate methods, techniques, or instruments.
• Case Studies: Presentation of innovative projects where the use of conceptual and technical tools has resolved complex challenges related to the integration of the sensible.
Original contributions and research articles are welcome. Authors are invited to submit their abstracts before the specified deadline. Articles will be peer-reviewed based on criteria of academic excellence, originality, and relevance to the thematic session. Submissions must be in English.
We look forward to engaging and innovative contributions that will enrich the discussion on the instrumentation of architectural and urban ambiances, as well as the spatialisation of the sensible in the project.
Session Chair : Mohammed Boubezari
SESSION 13
Negative urban atmospheres
In previous research on atmospheres, the problem of negative atmospheres in general and negative urban atmospheres in particular has not been systematically analysed. By focussing on negative urban atmospheres, this session aims to contribute to reducing this gap. The term urban atmospheres is used here to refer to the atmospheres of urban public spaces.
Negative urban atmospheres are characterised by the fact that they trigger a more or less clear feeling of discomfort when spending time in public spaces. They thus subtly restrict the accessibility of public spaces. They rarely affect all users of public spaces equally, but usually a certain category of people. It is possible to imagine various situations in which negative atmospheres can arise - listed here only as examples. For long-established residents, the gentrification or touristification of a neighbourhood can transform a previously given feeling of resonance when spending time in the public space of "their" neighbourhood into a feeling of dissonance. Negative urban atmospheres can also be deliberately created through microagressions towards certain categories of people in public spaces. It is also conceivable that threatening events such as terrorist attacks create an oppressive mood in society that manifests itself as a negative atmosphere in certain situations and among certain people.
This session will discuss the broad spectrum of negative urban atmospheres – ideally on the basis of empirical studies. An important aspect here is a precise description and qualification of the subjective feelings that characterise negative atmospheres in order to understand the discomfort associated with the corresponding situation and the exclusionary character of negative urban atmospheres. Closely linked to this is the question of resistance to negative urban atmospheres. On the one hand, it concerns the possibility or impossibility of opposing negative urban atmospheres on an individual level. On the other hand, there is the question of whether and how collective resistance to negative atmospheres can be organised. Another important aspect is the question of how negative urban atmospheres arise, as mentioned at the beginning. It also involves dealing with changes in their intensity.
One challenge of empirical research into urban atmospheres lies in the precise description of the interplay between environmental qualities and subjective sensitivities. As the examples given at the beginning have indicated, moods, small gestures or memories can contribute to the creation of negative urban atmospheres. This session will therefore also address the question of how this complex interplay can be captured empirically and where there may be limits to empirical research into negative urban atmospheres.
In addition to papers dealing with these two overarching questions, contributions that focus on other aspects of the phenomenon of negative urban atmospheres and their research are also welcome.
Session Chair : Rainer Kazig
SESSION 14
Olfactive Design. The birth of a discipline
The relationship between the sense of smell and many disciplines of design and architecture is nothing new. Odours are in the materials that build architecture, in the rituals that take place within, in people's activities, in people themselves. The sense of smell, by its evocative nature, builds invisible architecture within visible architecture. Sometimes these two buildings are coherent, and this produces pleasure, narrative, comfort; sometimes they are not, and this creates discomfort, disorientation, and even illness.
Places have smells, cities have smells. Joseph Rykwert used to say that when one of his students mentioned, for example, types of Greek architecture, he would ask him what the Greeks did in the building: what happened on the altar, for example, where cows, bulls and other animals were sacrificed.
The great masters of architecture have designed considering the olfactory matrix of their buildings: Richard Neutra, Alvar Aalto, Peter Zumthor, Herzog and De Meuron, Gigon and Guyer, Diller and Scofidio, Philippe Rahm, to name but a few.
We are at the dawn of an important new design discipline, that of olfactory design, which not only takes us into a dimension that is still partly to be explored and presided over, but which requires new skills, offers new professions and markets. A discipline that requires transversal and vertical skills capable of exploring an aesthetic beyond sight, an ethic beyond consumption, a sustainability of materials, a healthiness of indoor and outdoor air, a knowledge of the neurological and physiological impact of certain substances on our actions and emotional reactions.
Olfactive Design, explores aspects related to spaces, products, services, behaviours, experiences, interfaces and air qualities. It is a discipline whose main objective is not the scenting of environments, but the knowledge of the nature of the materials that are chosen to furnish an environment, the movement of air in spaces, the temperature and humidity of these capable of conveying odours and volatile components.
It is a discipline made up of the integration of multiple skills in design, energy, chemistry, mechanics, neuroscience, art, perfumery, history, anthropology, ethnography, marketing, behavioural psychology, etc.
Olfactive Design is about designing a dynamic olfactory composition that redesigns the invisible architecture. In fact, designing with the sense of smell means building forms of invisible architecture in space, but also in time, because odours move naturally and artificially and change constantly. It is therefore not a question of choosing a fragrance diffuser, but of choosing the materials to be used in the project also for their olfactory qualities, deciding how to make the air that carries them move.
Olfactive design offers unlimited opportunities. A design practice that, despite being present in human history since ancient Egypt, can now become a discipline. The shift from perfumery and decoration to design has transformed it into an area of research and design in the contemporary world, far removed from cosmetics and environmental perfumery, integrated with digital technologies and sensitive to people's physiology.
Session Chair : Anna Barbara
SESSION 15
Participatory Regenerative Urban Development: 'ambiancing' the ecological transition
Integrating participatory approaches in urban planning have been advocated since the beginning of the 2000s in parallel, since the 2010s, with a stronger focus on ‘urban metabolism’, ‘resilience’, and ‘urban green space’ (Haghani et al., 2023). With the objective of finding ways of creating less polluting, energy-demanding, and ‘socially-tense’ cities, and ensuring that their citizens take active part in their transformation, serious questionings have risen concerning approaches to follow. Advocates of circularity have warned that, rather than focusing on circular economy, urban planners would benefit, instead, from working on ‘circular development’, away from a main focus on market mechanisms that do not acknowledge the value of by-products or waste (Williams, 2023). Crowley et al. (2021) had already discussed the problematic focus on ‘sustainability’, too often associated with economic growth. They explain that ‘participatory regenerative development’ would allow us to focus, instead, on co-creating a transition towards cities that meet the needs of their citizens whilst protecting the ecosystemic functions its life depends upon.
Participatory Urban Regenerative development can take various forms, all based on strong collaboration and negotiation, shared learning and exchanges of know-how, innovation and training, a fine knowledge and observation of what exists and what can be done, and the ability to adapt to complex situations. Both the process, the objectives and the stakeholders taking part in such a collective project are quite different from what can be found in the urban strategies that are currently elaborated and operationalised.
The objective of this session is to review examples of initiatives that contribute to regenerative development and to the ecological transition of cities of the 21st century. We would aim to examine, in particular, what ‘ambiance-alternatives’ they create that differ from the competitive, market-driven, often non-inclusive ones that characterise the ‘modern city’. What ‘ambiance’ can, more specifically, encourage, motivate, and induce such ecological transition whilst installing trust and the wish to commit to long-lasting, adaptive, changes based on the capacity to regenerate the resources and socio-ecological-economic ecosystem our survival depends upon? We ask which of these ‘ambiances’ (e.g. Highly technologically performant and futuristic? Ecological, grassroot and grounded in natural processes? Community-led and focused on shared learning and communication?) might motivate which stakeholders to take part in the co-creation of the urban transition and might lead to which configuration of ‘the regenerative city’.
This session therefore concentrates on the role that the ‘ambiance’ generated by the vision and the narrative associated with urban ecological transitions might have on stimulating change and motivating change agents to move into action. It also asks what ambiance would emanate from an ecologically regenerative and socially collaborative 21st city.
Session Chair : Sandrine Simon
SESSION 16
Politicising Ambiances in a Turbulent World
In a world marked by multiple concerns and disrupted by recurring crises – pollution of inhabited environments, threats to biodiversity, social and moral panics, terrorism, natural disasters, the growing weight of technology, etc. – the question arises of their effects on the ways of being and living together, and on ordinary urban atmospheres. These new and more frequent changes affects mundane urban life, altering our states of body and arousing different affects and emotions. How do atmospheres witness these changes, and how are they also used, engendered, and even politically employed, as forces and powers, for their capacity to include or exclude, to seduce or repel? How can we describe ambiances whose powers exceeds atmospheric phenomenality? How can we grasp and understand the forces that drive them? How can we think ambiances as social and political constructs?
As well as describing real-life situations, atmospheres convey the social, historical and cultural climate in which they are embedded. The aim of this session is to discuss the methodological, theoretical and practical issues arising from the politicisation of atmospheres. How can we capture and describe the changes at work, most of which are long, ongoing and unfinished processes that also involve complex socio-political issues? How can paying attention to the socio-political dimension of ambiances contribute to a critical reflection on the sensory future of the urban world?
We invite papers that address the above points within themes (non-exhaustive list) including:
- What are the effects of the power of ambiance on bodies and sensibilities?
- Which role(s) play ambiances in creating situations of unrest, symbolic violence and marginalization? How do they contribute to the creation of "sidelining?
- What are the political uses of ambiances/atmospheres?
- How are contemporary upheavals (social, ecological, technological, etc.) contributing to redefining the issues and methods involved in research on ambiances?
- What research methods can be used to conduct sensitive and political investigations?
- What could be an ambiance/atmosphere-based critique? What could be the objects of this ambiance/atmosphere-based critique?
Session Chair : Damien Masson and Rachel Thomas
SESSION 17
Sad atmospheres and despairing cities
This session will look at sad and gloomy emotional registers, rarely highlighted in the literature on urban ambiances. Yet the experience of cities frequently takes on an intimately unhappy affective coloring for its visitors or inhabitants. In this session, we'd like to focus on "urban sadness", an ordinary mood that can be seen as a powerful witness to the affective knots that bind us to cities. In this session, we'd like to examine how and to what extent these attachments are affected by the convergence of architectural, meteorological and affective dimensions. Gloomy moods, cold architectures and grayish, rainy climates, for example, maintain connecting paths that see the city unfold in a certain tone: sad, gloomy and dreary.
In this session, we'd like to look at some of the issues surrounding urban transformations and their possible perceived brutality. In every process of transformation, a perspective on the future slips away, putting to the test the reserve of promises and expectations that the city inherently holds. A way of living in and depending on the city is inevitably stripped of its meaning, leading to the sad impression of losing oneself in this absence.
At first glance, a number of urban transformations that alter the way people live appear to be relevant to the idea of communicating "sad atmospheres": desolate landscapes, disused buildings, the disappearance of familiar shops, the devastation or closure of public gardens, the elimination of popular viewpoints and byways, the privatization of public spaces, the proliferation of monotonous buildings, the invasion of tourism, the excessive standardization of urban design, the dulling of folklorized festive events, etc.
More broadly, the challenge of this session is to take seriously a subtle feeling - sadness - that draws on and spills over into the urban environment. By resonating intimately, it allows us to depict, against an obscure background, a certain relational and sensitive power of the city that is difficult to reduce to a measurable property. This darker face of the city thus goes beyond the ills identified in the usual urban diagnoses that point to objective nuisances: technical dysfunction, infrastructural inadequacy, conflicts of use, lack of safety or hygiene. Instead, our session focuses on the deep-rooted feelings inspired by the personality of cities, leaving visitors and residents in a troubled, reflective state, marked by a darkening of mood and sometimes a form of painful apathy. Whether tending towards the poles of despair, spleen, gloom or melancholy, urban sadness is a sensitive indicator of certain atmospheric qualities that cities exude.
Papers can be presented in a variety of formats: purely analytical reflections, presentations of field notebooks, readings of filmic or photographic images, musical, danced or poetic performances. The session will focus on a comprehensive approach to the sources and manifestations of "urban sadness". It will focus on the fact that sadness is a possible vehicle for inspiration emanating from the city.
Session Chair : Marc Breviglieri, Paul Bai, Lucia Bordone and Nicole Peccoud
SESSION 18
Sensitive approaches in urban-scale project processes
Theoretical writings on sensitive aspects of the urban and "sensory urbanism" (Paquot, 2010; Besse, 2009; Zardini et al., 2005), and on "sensitive architectures" (Pallasma, 2013; Bonnaud, 2012), have been circulating for some years now. However, very few scientific works empirically address the consideration of these aspects in the design process, particularly on an urban scale and by design professions (Paxinou, 2017; Degen, Melhuish, Rose, 2015; Busenkell, 2012).
The "design" professions (architects, landscape architects, urban planners, etc.), historically involved in the production of the urban, but with a renewed focus in recent years (notably with an increase in the number of stakeholders from the world of art and design), have historically constructed themselves as bearers: of technical expertise and, for some of them, of aesthetic expertise, which very largely calls upon the sensitive (notably in the training of some of these professionals). And yet, although sensibility is present in the discourse of urban space designers, it still seems to be groping its way through the methodological and epistemological aspects of project practice.
This session will examine the place and role of sensibility within the design process of urban and territorial projects (from public spaces to large-scale projects). Our hypothesis, linked to the PROSECO research (ANR-20-CE22-0002-01), is that sensibility can play an ambiguous role in design processes, insofar as it can be both a vector of normativity and a field of creativity. It can be both (implicitly or explicitly) mobilized to enhance quality or to impoverish it; and this in all possible spectrums of intervention (from the most institutional to the most informal). We therefore consider that design professionals (whether planners, local authority technicians, architects, urban planners, landscape architects or others) deal with existing standards in their day-to-day work, and that the arrival in force of the environmental issue feeds this process with new standards; but it can also be an opportunity for creative repositioning and inventiveness, notably calling on the sensitive (work on materials, climatic management of spaces, etc.).
In what forms is sensitivity mobilized? In what words? What values are promoted? Is there a part of those professions that is most inclined to mobilise sensitive aspects in the project process (for instance younger or explicitely politicaly engaged professionnals)? Do contemporary issues (ecological, inclusion, gender, etc.) lead to the mobilization of the sensitive? What are the motivations and values for mobilizing, or not, the sensitive? If so, what forms of knowledge and what specific tools are used? In what perspective, and to highlight which aspects of the territory, is sensitivity mobilized? In what way does the possible mobilization of sensitivity call into question design habits, and in particular the involvement of residents and users and consideration of their sensitivities? How do these changes affect the project process and the role of professionals? What influence do the training, professional and personal trajectories of professional players have?
Proposals may come from researchers working on these issues, or from professionals with a reflective and theorized view of their own practices.
Session Chair : Théa Manola, Mathilde Girault, and Silvère Tribout.
SESSION 19
Sensory Design and its Management Implications for Art and Tourism Places
People are connected in many ways to the multisensoriality of architecture, urban space, and landscape. For them, these are spaces of experience on the one hand and spaces of agency on the other (Liu et al., 2017), as they express their will to design and thus also their will to experience individually and socially. It is therefore about (un)conscious sensory perception and conscious creation of meaning for places at the same time. This dualism has been reflected for several centuries in philosophy (Böhme, 1995), anthropology (Classen, 2017), geography (Tuan, 2012), art history (Pichet & Kluge, 2023), marketing (Biehl-Missal & vom Lehn, 2015), and many other sciences.
Depending on the proximity to the set stimulus, spatial experience involves various qualities and quantities for sensory perception, whether in a kind of concentric arrangement (Iwasaki et al., 2023) or as a phenomenon of overlapping perception. This can relate to a single form of stimulus (sounds) and thus perceptual modality (hearing) or also to multisensory combinations of stimulus forms and perceptual modalities, whereby the degree of complexity in stimulus perception and processing increases. The spatial experience is supplemented by a temporal dimension. People perceive stimuli sequentially, which turns perception into a process. However, people also activate their (sensory) memory and implicitly recall previous perceptions and associations.
The section will focus primarily on artistic and tourist locations (Staiff, 2015), whereby both open and closed spaces will be considered. We are focusing on two key issues: How are places designed so that they can unfold their potential for multisensory sensory perception (spatial component)? What implications does the specific design have for the management of these places (process component); for example, what needs to be rethought in museum, destination, or tourism management (service process design, value chains, stakeholder management etc.)?
We invite researchers to submit paper proposals for this session. These proposals can be individual case studies, comparative analyses, or theory-based contributions. We would welcome authors working transdisciplinarily, establishing a link between past, present and (digital) future and presenting examples from different cultures around the world.
Session Chair : Dorit Kluge
SESSION 20
Smell of Nature: Rethinking Scent Ecology in the Post-Pandemic and Climate Change Context
The olfactory experience of nature profoundly impacts human well-being. Natural scents—such as the aroma of forests, flowers, soil, or the sea—evoke positive emotions, reduce stress, and enhance mood. Research indicates that exposure to natural scents can lower cortisol levels, decrease blood pressure, and promote relaxation, contributing to overall psychological and physiological well-being (Bentley, et al., 2023).
The role of scents in ecosystem services is paramount. Various organisms primarily utilize scents for communication and signal transmission. For instance, animals release pheromones for mating, while scents attract pollinators to flowers, aiding successful plant reproduction. Scents also crucially govern relationships between predators and prey: prey animals emit specific scents as a defence mechanism, while predators use scents to locate and track prey, enhancing hunting efficiency (Press, et al., 2000). Furthermore, scents are vital in decomposition processes, particularly in breaking down organic matter. Odorous compounds attract decomposers like bacteria and fungi, aiding in converting organic matter into simpler forms and facilitating nutrient cycling within ecosystems.
Cities are characterized by artificial and often overpowering scents, such as pollutants, vehicle emissions, and industrial odours, contributing to air pollution and adverse human health effects. The absence of natural scents in urban spaces may lead to sensory deprivation of positive olfactory stimuli crucial for mental health and cognitive function (Spence, 2020). Covid pandemic alert us to the importance of access to “fresh air” and scents of nature. Although some initiatives are seen to introduce pocket parks and green roofs into the centre, few acknowledging the role of scents in urban ecosystem and quality of life in cities. One the other note, climate change also urges us to re-think about sensory ecology and sustainability. For example, heatwaves as a result change our olfactory sensitivity in summer, cause biodiversity loss and damages the circadian cycle of plant scents in the local ecosystem. Rebuilding olfactory connections is pivotal for creating a regenerative and restorative future, from deprivation to reactivation.
This session invites scholars, researchers, practitioners, and artists to explore, discuss, and reimagine the significance of scent ecology in our lives, guided by the following questions:
- How are scents creatively used in artistic, architectural, landscape and urban practices to purposefully reconnect people and nature?
- How can a better understanding of the role of plant scents in ecosystems inform sustainable practices in agriculture, forestry, and land management, minimizing negative impacts on natural habitats?
- How can natural scents be used to indicate environmental changes and ecosystem health?
- How can new technology (i.e. XR, AI) innovate the documentation and representation of plant scents in built environment?
We are interested in diverse formats of contributions including traditional papers, multi-media outputs or action-based learning activities.
Session Chair : Jieling Xiao and Victoria Linn Lygum
SESSION 21
Sounds, Cities, Art, and Ecology
Urban atmospheres are of course experienced through more than one sense: living beings perceive them using their eyes, ears, skin, and nose. However, besides elements that can be experienced through the senses many other agents are more or less active in creating a specific atmosphere. For instance, cultural perspectives and individual idiosyncrasies can produce a diversity in atmospheres in any given situation; socio- political and economic influences enforce expected atmospheres (such as the predominance of car sounds); and ecological or commercial interests codetermine the general ambiance of a site. In short, all these agents (and many more) play a role in the ways places are designed and experienced.
Taking the above into account, our view is not only that sound is an important agent in the creation of an urban atmosphere but that all these agents are connected to sound. A constantly changing constellation of traffic sounds, construction works, human activities, bells, music (coming from shops, buskers or portable audio devices), as well as natural sounds (coming from birds, trees, wind, and rain) not only determine the soundscape or ambiance of a city but also how these are perceived. However, when intervening in such a soundscape or ambiance several other parameters besides sound, might change as well: for instance, the amount and kind of social interaction, issues about (un)safety or mystery/intrigue. Also, visual, haptic, olfactory and social and/or community transformations might occur in combination with introduced sounds, depending on the type of intervention.
In this session we would like to focus specifically on the relation between the sonic environment, sound art, and ecology in cities. The session is meant to invite presentations of concrete artistic interventions that are directly affecting the ecological situation of an urban environment. In other words, through this session we aim to investigate the following question: how can sound artists contribute to a better ecological climate in cities? As we are aware that these artistic interventions are very much determined by specific situations, we would especially like to invite contributions from various parts of the world (from the Global South to the Global East, West, and North), from metropoles to small-scale cities, from interventions in already existing neighbourhoods to artistic-ecological projects in newly developed areas, etc. Ideally, participants, audience, and session leaders go home with a bag full of best practices, challenging examples, and trailblazing ideas as how art, ecology, and city life can mutually affect and benefit from another.
Session Chair : Marcel Cobussen and Jordan Lacey
SESSION 22
Sustainable and resilient cities from the perspective of systems thinking
A cidade é um sistema que integra outros sistemas. Em maior escala, um sistema planetário que se encontra em profunda crise, com ameaças à existência humana. É preciso ação coletiva urgente, a tempo de “adiar o fim do mundo”, como poetiza o ambientalista indígena Ailton Krenak (2019).
Não é possível vislumbrar cidades para pessoas, que sejam mais eficientes, produtivas, inteligentes e vivas, se não houver num futuro próximo cidades nem pessoas. Um princípio basilar para o futuro (e para o presente) das cidades é que haja futuro para as cidades.
O que nos levou a este labirinto do qual temos dificuldade de sair foi a forma de nos organizarmos enquanto sociedade, com um sistema econômico que transforma todas as coisas em produto, em sua fatídica perspectiva de crescimento perpétuo, e com uma visão de mundo demasiadamente cartesiana. A superação do paradigma reducionista/mecanicista é fundamental para o enfrentamento de nossos problemas.
No início do século XX, as descobertas sobre como a natureza opera em seus métodos de criar, destruir e reconstruir, ligados essencialmente a conexões, interdependência e co-desenvolvimento, levaram a mudanças importantes em diversas áreas do conhecimento.
Emerge daí uma nova abordagem que busca romper com a hegemonia da linearidade e reducionismo na produção do conhecimento científico e na interpretação dos fenômenos: a complexidade. Emerge também a perspectiva do pensamento sistêmico em várias disciplinas, sendo os pioneiros os biólogos, enfatizando os organismos como totalidades integradas.
É fundamental desenvolver a compreensão do caráter sistêmico das cidades e de como podemos construir caminhos concretos para melhorá-las. Este universo teórico tem sido incorporado na compreensão, planejamento e gestão de cidades, em geral, concentrada no tema da sustentabilidade ambiental, mas cidades que valorizam os princípios mais elementares dos organismos vivos e da lógica de funcionamento da natureza não são somente mais amigáveis e favorecedoras da vida, mas também são mais eficientes, produtivas e inteligentes.
A abordagem sistêmica apresenta caminhos metodológicos que abrem possibilidades de se estudar o fenômeno urbano de maneira interdisciplinar e abrangente para enfrentar desafios relacionados à sustentabilidade, mas também à própria lógica de interpretação do fenômeno urbano.
Nesse sentido esta sessão temática se propõe a constituir um ambiente de debates sobre a relevância do pensamento sistêmico nos estudos urbanos e sobre como as cidades podem e devem ser o epicentro de mudanças tão necessárias quanto urgentes nos rumos da humanidade, entendendo que o ser vivo possui relação intrínseca com o ambiente em que vive, de tal forma que Morin (2005) a chama de auto-eco-organizadora. Criamos o ambiente em que vivemos e somos criados por ele, o que Jan Gehl (2010) ilustra com a frase “primeiro nós moldamos as cidades, depois elas nos moldam”.
Vivemos uma época que requer uma busca por um modelo de cidade, mas não por um modelo físico, como se buscou em muitos momentos de nossa história, e sim um modelo mental, conceitual, filosófico e até espiritual: o da sustentação e potencialização da vida.
Session Chair : Renan Silva
SESSION 23
Teaching the ambient Project
Scientific community – with its philosophers, anthropologists, sociologists, engineers, geographers, historians and researchers in art, architecture, design, cinema, etc.- working hard to describe ambiance and atmosphere, to analyze the experience of architectural, urban or landscape places and to refine the notions related to atmospheres. Moreover, many architects – like Juhani Pallasmaa, Peter Zumthor or Philipp Rahm -, more or less consciously integrate atmospheric and feeling issues into their projects. As such, they produce real references in terms of ambient projects.
All this constitutes an available material to teach the ambient or atmospheric project. But how do architects and design project teachers procede to teach ambient project ? How about going beyond the atmospheric design ? All this material is it useful ? Should we/ did they invent another one ?
What do students teach us ? What do workshop’s experiences at school teach us ? What are the issues for teachers ? What about representation ? What about evaluation ? Can the teaching of ambient project be a kind of reform of the more traditionnal design teaching – if it exists at all – or does it require a real paradigm shift ?
Session Chair : Olfa R. Meziou
SESSION 24
The fluvial urban landscape - in search of a new urban ambiance for rivers
The production of urban places enhances the creation of unique environments that reinforce people's connection to the environment—physical, natural, built, and social. Particularly through the appropriation and provision of cognitive, sensitive, sensorial, and sociocultural atmospheres that generate memories, as well as being and comfort, is an emerging challenge. Specifically, if we associate it with contemporary societal needs for more sustainable and resilient urban contexts, both aspects present themselves as challenges to which it is urgent to find answers that are more agile, flexible, and adapted to socio-spatial contexts. This session aims to provide a debate on these challenges based on the theme of urban rivers, mainly with regard to their (re)naturalization, socio-spatial contextualization, and the involvement and participation of riverside communities. Rivers are among the most endangered ecosystems in the world, although they play a fundamental role in the urban environment, for public health and well-being. It inquires about the perspectives of building scientific and social knowledge, the use and appropriation of river landscapes, and the respective recovery and creation of new memories, as well as the perspectives of co-creating approaches for the rehabilitation of rivers in urban contexts, transforming them into places.
Session Chair : Marluci Menezes, Carlos Smaniotto Costa
SESSION 25
The sensory and sensitive identity of Mediterranean cities
The Mediterranean has always been a hub for multiple exchanges and transfers between civilizations. It has consistently beckoned its inhabitants to travel, meet, and explore, encouraged by the apparent benevolence of its waters. The timeless call to venture beyond, recounted in mythology or etched onto the boats of ferry operators, has facilitated connections across diverse sensory universes. These universes resonate with each other and echo. There exists a palpable porosity between the ambiances of different regions that define its boundaries and extend even beyond. These ambiances, resonating among themselves, embody a Mediterranean way of life that implies a particular conception of time.
Today, questions of Urban Identity and City Branding emerge in various cities around the Mediterranean. These themes are gaining prominence both in architectural and urban planning education and in urban policies. This interest has been cultivated in different southern Mediterranean countries to address the significant urban transformations affecting both formal and informal aspects of cities. The consequence is an erasure of the primary urban and sensory characteristics of these cities, along with a fading of their inhabitants’ memories. This prompts us to reflect on the evolving identity of Mediterranean cities.
How can we first define the urban and sensory identity of Mediterranean cities? What are the foundations for creating and/or preserving an identity rooted in duration, history, and the flow of evolution? What role does ambiance and sensory space play in shaping the unique urban character of these cities?
In this session, we propose to explore cross-cutting issues that may reveal characteristics of an ambiance specific to the Mediterranean context. How does ambiance manifest and integrate into the treatment of Mediterranean cities today? Where does the Mediterranean space extend to? Is it perceptible in practices beyond the presence of a climate and conditions typical of “waterfront” cities? We ponder whether there truly exist distinctly Mediterranean ambiances. What elements constitute these ambiances? Can we identify sensitive qualities and atmospheric traits that distinguish the Mediterranean character of an ambiance?
(1) Thibaud Jean Paul in « Il faudrait se demander s’il existe des ambiances proprement méditerranéennes » entretien croisé avec Jean Paul Thibaud et François Laplantine, propos recueillis par Toumadher Ammar, in Méditerraner, tête à tête n°9, Rouge Profond, 2018.
Session Chair : Noha Gamal Said, Toumadher Ammar and Philippe Liveneau
SESSION 26
The urban and landscape ambiances during and post-pandemic
During the COVID-19 pandemic, preventive measures such as social distancing, the prohibition of public gatherings, curfews, and restrictions on public transportation significantly impacted the ambiances and usage of outdoor public spaces (streets, boulevards, squares, parks, and gardens...).
Are the urban and landscape ambiances produced by our contemporary societies flexible enough to effectively respond to health crises? Special attention is focused on the resilience of public urban spaces and the urban and landscape ambiances they generate.
Expected contributions could explore various themes related to the urban and landscape ambiances during and/or post-pandemic, including but not limited to:
Session Chair : Samira Khettab
SESSION 27
Thinking Ambiances Through Experimentation: A Research and Teaching Resource Through Experience
Over the past few years, the concept of experimentation has emerged as a central theme in the exploration of ambiances, particularly for its role in testing and experiencing situated actions and their effects. This strong emphasis on the embodied experience, whether by a designer, actor, user, or a combination of these roles, positions experimentation as a pivotal tool in thinking about spatial design's impact on ambiances.
Despite its significance, the concept of experimentation remains relatively underexplored and inadequately acknowledged as a distinct methodological approach within our research domain, even though it bridges pertinent questions and approaches relevant to both pedagogy and research.
This session aims to present experimentation as a dedicated "ambiance practice", providing a framework for the systematic exploration of ambiances through design, fabrication, and the corporeal engagement with constructed spatial environments thus establishing an essential link between the initial concept and the perceptive reality of the built space.
This comprehensive process involves reflecting on the diverse range of tools available and their interplay with design (manual tools, digital tools, algorithms, artificial intelligence, etc.), realization (conventional tools, numerically controlled machines, customized tools, etc.), and evaluation (perception, metrology, surveys, etc.). Encouraging an inquiry into the diverse array of tools, this discourse invites an examination of their impact and contributions to the overarching "practice of ambiances" encapsulated by the concept of experimentation.
Furthermore, this session provides an opportunity to scrutinize the direct or indirect links between teaching, research, and/or professional applications. Participants can highlight connections between various fields of application, whether identified retrospectively or prospectively, and identify reciprocal or distinct “inputs”.
In summation, this session is intended as a time and a place for exchanging ideas and presenting the current state of contemporary thought on the subject. It aspires to showcase new concepts and practices emerging at the intersection of issues related to ambiances and experiences, while exploring areas that bind pedagogy, research, and the professional world.
Session Chair : Théo Marchal, Philippe Liveneau and Amal Abu Daya
SESSION 28
When care becomes ambient
For several years now, theoretical approaches on care have allowed this concept to become more complex (Tronto, 2009; Paperman, 2015; Hirata, 2021), including issues of inequality in social relationships. While these works do not include in their development issues relating to spatial and territorial inequalities, other works are beginning to shed light on the relationships between care and space and/or territories.
Michel Lussault (in Beau, Larrère, 2018) draws on the ethics of care by proposing the notion of spatial care, in order to think the vulnerability of contemporary habitats as a constructive force. By extending Joan Tronto's definition, Lussault defines spatial care as "a generic activity that includes everything we do to maintain, perpetuate and repair our habitat and the principles of our cohabitation, so that we can live as well as possible in our ecumene" (Lussault, 2018: 207).
This approach to inhabited spaces and their contemporary issues makes the metamorphoses at work as much an object of attention as a projectual aim.
Beyond the spatial and material transformations considered within spatial care, this session proposes to walk alongside the ethics of care by focusing on practices that raise a particular concern for sensitive and ambient qualities, which, to borrow an expression from Jean-Paul Thibaud (2015: 21), question less the "what of the surrounding world than the how of being-in- the-world".
The spatial care invites us to consider the inventive practices of non-institutional stakeholders, who are still too often unrecognized, and thus to rethink the frameworks for action on the ground. Spatial care calls us to pay attention to both sometimes fragile collectives (more or less informal groups trying to invent new ways of living), and to solutions locally constructed in the light of specific spatio-temporal situations. It also encourages us to look at the transformations of inhabited spaces beyond the completion of development projects: what are the practices of caring for spaces on a daily basis?
The focus on ambiance in this frame of thoughts invites us to question the practices, stories and gestures of attention and care towards ambiances, whether they are undergone, desired, designed, experienced and shaped on a daily basis. And, beyond gestures, we can also look at the ways in which this ambient and sensitive preoccupation translates into reinvented spatial configurations and material arrangements.
Faced with the need to rethink the role of ambiances and the sensitive approaches in times of Anthropocene, and considering contemporary socio-ecological crises, this session aims to propose a reflection on ambiantal care within the Ambiances 2024 Congress. To this end, a non- exhaustive set of questions is raised:
How should we approach the intersections between care and ambiances? What are the attentional modalities and situated practices that need to be developed to care for fragile atmospheres, local weather conditions in crisis, and unstable or changing environments? How can we take responsibility, at our own level, in the context of socio-ecological crisis? How caring is translated in material work? What kind of contact with the objects of care does this imply? How can we ensure that the reception of care is recognized and, in this way, judge its appropriateness? Does caring for ambiances contribute to the raising of new kinds of public to consider in the frame of spatial transformation?
These questions can be addressed from both theoretical and empirical/operational perspective.
Proposals may come from researchers working on these issues, or from professionals with a reflective view of their own practices.
Session Chair : Laure Brayer and Théa Manola
SESSION 29
Unbidden, unnamed, uncomfortable: ambiances beyond the binary
In design terms, the atmospherics of disease, discomfort or difficulty are often set against more serene, simple or pleasurable experiences (Bille 2015, Zumthor 2006) with urban environments, interiors and events constructed accordingly. By contrast, the aesthetics of contemporary performance often intentionally seek to produce precisely the kinds of atmospheres that more quotidian modes of design might otherwise seek to mitigate against. This session will revel in all that arrives unbidden with/in atmospheres, exploring unsettling, disturbing and paradoxical seepages of sensory experience generated by performance practice. It seeks the contributions of sound practitioners, theatre makers, and audience studies researchers concerned with atmospheric aesthetics as providing routes for movement and encounter beyond the immobilising traps of binaries. These are atmospherics that breach the consensus of the collective consensus, operate via negativa, and, following Sara Ahmed (The Feminist Killjoy Handbook 2023), reject the norms of comfort, happiness and so on to offer a means of resistance to the conviviality that often cloaks oppression. The session hopes to consider performances occurring across a range of spaces and conditions. How do atmospheric 'miasmas' productively disinvest large-scale, regulatory social structures of seemingly requisite outside/inside binaries? How can rethinking affects and atmospheres like "indifference" as aesthetically and politically productive design choices offer new ways to value 'in-between' or unsettled states of experience? How can the generation of sonic atmospheres address experiences of personal and collective pain? Are contemporary cybercultures such as ASMR cross-pollinating into offline space in ways that alter ambiances irrevocably?
The session invites participants to address the political as well as the aesthetic urgency to these unbidden atmospheres, causing us to perform in registers that scramble and rearrange sensory boundaries. It will necessarily range across questions of production and reception, to cover perspectives from within the practice of making and presenting performance, alongside those that engage with its events as audiences. It seeks considerations of atmospheric registers for the contemporary politics of theatre spaces, which may aim to promote inclusion and access but often struggle to do so: post-covid, digital and technological sonic processes offer significant opportunities to explore accessibility and sensory difference in performance - non-traditional considerations within theatre and installation design which are now forming connections with disability studies and concerns around building design. The session offers an opportunity for a dialogue amongst practitioners and researchers in the opening of a connection to complexities of touch, feeling, and subjectivities beyond those that institutional and industrial spaces are conventionally set up to express. In a newly interactive and increasingly hard-to-define age of performance, the session will explore the possibilities of sensation and expression that make strange sensory-social conditions that might otherwise be taken for granted, and propose new sensory norms of encounter.
Session Chair : Martin Welton
SESSION 30
Urban Temporalities between heritage and projection
The ambiance is traversed by various apprehensions of time. The long duration that inscribes it into history. The immediacy of the lived experience leads us to contemplate its incessant evolution through an infinitely actualized present, where concrete reality never repeats itself. Through ambiance, we inhabit time through internally lived experiences. The felt ambiance, as it subtly transforms over time and space, contributes to the actualization of our inner states—an adjustment that occurs more in succession than juxtaposition, aligning with the conception of ambiance as a perpetual process or being in becoming. Ambiance projects us into the past, into the future, and sometimes detaches us from our present.
Ambiance encompasses time as rhythm, embrace, nonchalance, slowness, eagerness, and more. We perceive time through ambiance. Our apprehension of time is also influenced by cultural, geographical, and climatic filters. Some research has explored the notion of ambiance through concepts that shape time, such as palimpsest and hybridity. The question of temporality prompts us to consider ruptures or continuities of ambiance over time and space.
That said, there remains ample room for debate regarding the quality of ambiances concerning the temporal aspects of urban spaces. We believe that city construction necessitates an understanding of time: its perceptible nature, objective measurement, and instrumentalization throughout the project's duration.
The theme of urban temporality encompasses time within operational concepts, analytical tools, and representations of urban projects. The intended objective is to comprehend the complexity of urban history, which includes spatial history (materials, devices, processes), the history of social practices (ordinary acts, exceptional occupations, forms of appropriation, well-being and/or ill-being situations), and the inseparable sensitive history intertwined with memory. Additionally, it involves the production of historical narratives at three levels: habitation, neighborhood, and the city itself.
The aim is to uncover the interconnections and relationships between these dimensions and their uses, as well as their impact on city construction (urban planning and design). In this context, several questions arise: How does the built space of a city intersect with these temporal dimensions? How does a sensory history unfold through urban construction and permeate urban culture? What sensory design tools are currently suitable for capturing and producing time, and how can new ones be created? Which concepts related to the lexicon of ambiance are capable of incorporating and representing the temporal and historical challenges of architecture and urban planning? How do we perceive urban temporalities in the era of the Anthropocene, digitalization, and the post-pandemic era?
Session Chair : Noha Gamal SAID and Toumadher Ammar
SESSION 32
Ambiance et propagations.
Hypothesis 1: An ambiance spreads, it is contagious, it operates through proximities. It is viral, sometimes even virulent, always and infinitely variable. Effects of amplification, fading, or collapse... It self-organizes or self-destructs. It escapes the sole will of those who create it, yet is not structurally determined by its initial conditions.
Hypothesis 2: The concept of propagation allows for the fundamental reintroduction of time into the analysis or production of ambiances. The question of time is often treated as an "ambiance factor" (a duration, a moment, an event that contributes to perpetuating, disrupting, or interrupting its course), but it is rarely addressed head-on, as such and as constitutive of the phenomenon of ambiance itself. Exploring the countless links between propagation phenomena and ambiance situations will be the focus of this session.
The perspective can be theoretical or methodological. What role can the notion of propagation play in the conceptual definition of the ambiance concept? A catalyst, a capacitor, a resonator? Is it an attribute, a modality, an effect? Could it open a third way between the technical approach to ambiances (disciplinary and disciplined) and human approaches to Ambiance (transdisciplinary and undisciplined)? ...
It can be pragmatic or analytical. What propagates in the lived, or better yet, alive reality of an ambiance situation? A rumor, a gesture, a ritual? How are propagation phenomena experienced? What is the relationship between the propagation speed and the living or deadly nature of an ordinary or extraordinary, domestic or public, spatial or media situation? ...
It can still be that of perception or creation. How does the propagation of images, sounds, smells, or information operate in sensory perception? How does it give consistency to an ambiance? How does it resonate with it? Or how does it ensure its persistence through its infinite variations – of inertia, speed, or acceleration?
From the reactualization of the notion of time giver from chronobiology (Zeitgeber or synchronizers) to the new sociology of propagations (proposed by Dominique Boullier), from cross-cutting approaches of rhythmology (Graff and Gwiazdzinski) to algorithms tracing biological, social, or attentional virality, the field of disciplines invoked and the choice of communications will strive to cover this passage between technical sciences, physical sciences, and social sciences.
From the physical and sensory analysis of sound phenomena to the stance of architectural, urban, or territorial projects, from the anthropological narrative recounting the processes of installing a festive ambiance, a political demonstration, or a community gathering to the study of chains of contagion in critical situations of pandemic, rumor, or conflict, the field of concerned Ambiances research is widely open to the... propagation of the concept! It could be framed under the sign of a distinction between three temporal logics: cadence, rhythm, and pulsation.
Session Chair : Pascal Amphoux.
SESSION 35
Ambient resonance and eco-construction.
Today, it is no longer an option for urban and built environment professionals to ignore global warming and its consequences for our living conditions. The need to comply with standards and other labels that govern architectural and urban production is legitimate. However, these regulations, which advocate reducing the exchange with the outside world and maintaining the interior at a comfortable average temperature through air conditioning, are mostly based on sophisticated engineering that, paradoxically, consumes a lot of energy and exacerbates the urban heat island effect. What's more, this approach, based on the idea of an universal human being, proposes a deterministic and prescriptive vision of comfort, resulting in a smoothing of the environment that is indifferent to the specificities and rhythms of different uses (Pascal Amphoux).
This attitude is based on the dominant paradigms of modern Western thought, which presuppose a subject who has set himself apart from the world with the aim of knowing it, conquering it and dominating it in order to optimize the material conditions necessary for his well-being and fulfilment. In other words, modern man sees the world as so many points of aggression whose resistance must be broken down, subdued and shaped according to his desires and aspirations (Hartmut Rosa). But this attitude of domination proves its difficulty tosustain. By adopting the dominant viewpoint of the natural sciences, man has exploited the planet's resources without taking care of them. The result is that we all now face "an universal shortage of shared space and habitable land". The globe is no longer big enough to accommodate humanity and its plans for universal modernity (Bruno Latour).
The alternative is to consider another vision, that of a human being who immediately enters into a state of complete resonance with the world (Peter Sloterdijk, Bruce Bégout). This tonal understanding of the qualities of the atmosphere, which does not require an attitude of searching for causes or aiming at goals, merges into an immediate understanding of what surrounds us. This alternative opens up perspectives on the possibilities of inhabiting the world in the sense of caring for it (Martin Heidegger).
So it's not a question of creating spaces cut off from the outside world, which would destroy our emotional capacity for resonance, our sense of atmosphere, but of creating more or less intense filters to build intimate spheres that can be inhabited, always in co-presence with the other inhabitants, whether human or non-human. This co-presence, combined with a shared sense of a common breath of life, imposes logics of attention to others.
Under these conditions, to what extent is it possible to resolve the contradictory issues of the deterministic imperatives of thermal comfort and those of the possibilities of emotional resonance with the world?
How can we respond to the demand to reduce the exchange between inside and outside without compromising our ability to live in a way that is attentive to the world and vibrate along with the atmosphere?
Bibliography
Pascal Amphoux, Vers une théorie des trois conforts. Annuaire 90, Département d’architecture de l’EPFL (Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne), 1990, pp. 27-30. <hal-01561140>
Bruce Bégout, Le concept d’ambiance, Le Seuil, 2020
Martin Heidegger, « Bâtir habiter penser » in Essais et conférences, Gallimard (traduction de Vorträge and Aufsatze, Pfullingen, 1954 par PREAU André)
Hartmut Rosa, Rendre le monde indisponible, La Découverte, 2020
Peter Sloterdijk, Ecumes. Sphères III, Paris, Libella Maren Sell, 2005
Session Chair : Alia Sellami Benayed and Imen Landoulsi.
SESSION 38
Climatic backgrounds and climatic textures of ambiances.
This session welcomes research contributions that engage with the contemporary debate on how climatic conditions contribute to the city dwellers experience either as backgrounds or as textures of urban ambiances. The session is open to proposals examining the climatic dimensions of urban ambiances through manifold approaches (theoretical, methodological, case studies...). Interdisciplinary proposals are especially welcomed.
Climatic backgrounds of urban ambiances — Even in today’s predominantly urban contemporary societies, meteorological hazards in space and time continue to influence human activities, making them possible, impossible or risky. These hazards determine the possibility of co-presence situations in public spaces and the nature of the interactions within them, especially in relation to seasonal rhythms. Consequently, they constitute a fundamental aspect of the emergence of urban ambiances. Meteorological hazards also affect our perception of the world by shaping ambiances through specific configurations of light, heat, humidity or wind. Ambiances appear in climatic contexts that simultaneously determine their existence and boundaries while shaping their characteristics and modalities. Ambiances are fundamentally imbued with the climatic conditions of the places in which they emerge.
Climatic textures of urban ambiances — Contemporary built environments can be viewed as vast assemblages of what we call ‘pico-climates’, some of which form distinct climatic envelopes, identifiable bubbles with stable characteristics, while others are more intermittent, nebulous or random. These clusters of pico-climates define specific urban climatic landscapes, forming both singular and recurrent climatic events. As we move through these pico-climatic landscapes, we encounter ruptures and permeabilities. We experience one pico-climate after another without fully comprehending them, only becoming aware of them when a pico-climatic event imposes itself: the saving draught at the bend of a heat-stricken street, the spring sunbeam at a certain time on a certain bench in a certain square, and so on. The ways in which they appear, depending on the urban context or temporary weather conditions, modify our experience of the city. Pico-climates give a climatic texture to urban ambiances. As potential sources of restoration, pleasure and surprise in ordinary urban activities, they are powerful emotional forces in cities and contribute to place attachment.
Session Chair : Daniel Siret and Ignacio Requena.
SESSION 40
Existential corpography.
[THIS SESSION WILL ALSO TAKE PLACE IN RIO DE JANEIRO]
How can we rethink the relationship between human beings and space? How can we question the mutations of the sensitive environment through our daily practices? What dimension of atmospheric affectivity is produced when we interact in/with space? And how do ambiances affect us? These are questions that raise the issue of the sensitive dimension of existence in order to explore the aesthetic experience of various forms of life in contemporary cities. Following Jean-Paul Thibaud's theoretical suggestion, we are interested in debating with researchers who are interested in reflecting on urban spaces from the "vital and emotional power of everyday environments" in order to understand the diverse and multiple tonalities of the streets. Tons that are also expressions of a "poetics of space" (P. Sansot) in which bodies immerse themselves, producing a sensitive experience and, therefore, we need to observe how spaces are perceived and how individuals characterise them atmospherically through experimental practices. Our proposal is therefore to "think with" (De certeau), in the intermediate place (Lisbon-Rio), the bodily aesthetic experience (G. Böhme) as an actor of places, landscapes and routes through actions such as walks, flânerie, musical itineraries, artivism, walking, etc.
hus, our proposal is to think-with, in the in-between place (Lisbon-Rio), the aesthetic bodily experience (G. Böhme) as an actor in places, landscapes and itineraries through actions such as walks, flânerie, musical itineraries, artivism, walking, etc. Actions to be interpreted as signs of a poetic reconfiguration of urban tonalities in a production of "temporary affective zones" that constitute existential cartographies, putting the power of corporeality back at the center in synergy with urban sensoriality. Temporary affective zones need to be thought of as an expression of atmospheric and tonal qualities that will be a manifestation of a feeling, an emotion that emanates from the lived space and a resonance of the perceived space in which the ephemeral experience is consumed. We invite researchers to present interdisciplinary proposals for this session in the form of theoretical contributions, methods, case studies, in order to activate a moment of exchange and suggestion of ideas for thinking about environments from the point of view of emotional and affective cartographies derived from bodily and experiential practices.
Session Chair : Fabio La Rocca and Cíntia Sanmartin Fernandes .
SESSION 42
Metabolic Atmospheres.
This panel will explore interactions between atmospheric aesthetics and metabolism. How do human and nonhuman bodies—and their interrelations—register the metabolic influences of atmospheric properties like smell, temperature, and humidity? How do bodily and technological emanations contribute to these atmospheric properties? How have artists, writers, activists, and other researchers been addressing these metabolic influences in ways that challenge and move beyond racist and colonial notions of climatic determinism (e.g., the idea that climate's metabolic effects account for biological and "temperamental" differences between races)?
Bringing recent conversations about atmospheric aesthetics (e.g., Derek McCormack, Peter Adey, Peter Sloterdijk) into conversation with work in New Materialism (e.g., Stacy Alaimo, Karen Barad, Mel Chen) and sensory studies (e.g., Desiree Foerster, David Howes, Hi'ilei Hobart), papers should explore the nuances of "air conditioning" (Sloterdijk) in urban spaces and/or in other spaces and scales affected by urban processes. Possible topics include immersive & multimodal art installations; literary engagements with atmospheric influence; environmental media; smellscape; architectural ambiance; atmospheres of securitization, militarization, and policing; queer atmospheres; the multiplicity of fragmented, urban atmospheres; and subaltern projects of atmospheric worldmaking..
Session Chair : Hsuan L. Hsu.
SESSION 48
The role of time in the shaping of urban ambiances: exploring newly-built neighbourhoods.
This session welcomes research contributions that question the role of time in the shaping of urban ambiances and perceptions. In particular, the session is open to proposals that examine the ambiances of newly-built neighbourhoods as an illustration of the strangeness of situations before time takes its toll on them. Case studies and theoretical contributions are especially welcomed.
The thickness of time is fundamentally rooted in research into ambiances through concepts such as genius loci, palimpsest ambiance or the heritagization of atmospheres. This session would like to take a fresh look at this question by questioning the ambiances of the very newly-built neighbourhoods. Appearing within contemporary cities or in their outskirts, newly-built environments often display a kind of strangeness due to their unique architectural and urban layouts, their new and unused materials, their too-young vegetation, as well as the lack of established neighbourhood communities. Understanding these particular ambiances, before the sedimentation of the many traces of human and non-human life, allows us to grasp the role of time (linear, cyclical, subjective) in the shaping of ambiances encountered in more ordinary neighbourhoods.
Do the conditions of newly-built neighbourhood create different ambiances and experiences? Can they provide keys to understanding the temporal and sensory dimensions of ambiances? Does and how the deficit in the accumulation of presences, of sensory traces that intermingle, sediment and touch us, inform us about the temporal dimension of ambiances? How do the ambiances of very newly-built neighbourhoods fit in with the abstract linear time of past, present and future, with time of nature's cycles, with the subjective time of experience (Bergson, 1932)? Conversely, is this experienced time able to reproduce the lack of temporal thicknesses of the urban ambiance through concrete experiments, for instance using the body in movement, such as walking, dancing or hodology (Brinckerhoff, 2016), or imaginary transpositions (Sansot, 1996)?
Through these issues, the session will explore the links between sensitive and temporal modes of ambiances.
Session Chair : Emeline Bailly, Ignacio Requena and Daniel Siret.