Different atmospheres can be perceived in one same space. http://www.bloodandchampagne.com/2012/11/19/112/
Atmosphere is the space in which we inhabit. It is summarized to the intangible effects we perceive in a place. There is no architecture without an atmosphere. It goes beyond the constructed space. Atmosphere surrounds the space between the building and its surroundings.
There are architects that can disregard atmosphere and there are others that base their designs around the concept of atmosphere. Frank Lloyd Wright is the perfect example for an architect of atmosphere. He states that people are rooted to atmosphere whether they want to or not. For him atmosphere is created when every particle of the design focuses on one same idea. In his drawings the atmosphere can be clearly perceived as a set of effects, always producing an ideal atmosphere. Sometimes, the atmosphere and the building itself merge one into the other.
Architecture is compared to décor because it is the decorated structure in which atmosphere can happen. Atmosphere does not need a building, but it is the building that gives it a location. Architecture is a mix of atmospheres. One passes from one atmosphere to the other.
Guy Debord, a situationist architect, believes architecture is pure atmosphere and we could change the way we do architecture by using the “radical potential of atmosphere”. By this, the building and the architect come out of the picture. He states that “the city is made up of an endless mix of atmospheres” and that these atmospheres should be clearly defined one from the other. By these means analyze each one and reconstruct the city and the society. He then figured out that society molds its own atmosphere and the architect’s role vanishes.
But architects will always try to take control of the atmosphere surrounding their projects even though they want to embrace it or not because it is the nature of an architect.
Stating Le Corbusier: “The daily life of an architect can create an atmosphere in which it can grow.” For him, atmosphere cannot be taught. One learns to design atmosphere from the experienced effects of a particular atmosphere.
Every project has its own atmosphere, which cannot be rejected. It is intangible and indefinable. It is the essential part of architecture. The architect’s role is to create the relationship between the building and its atmosphere and not embrace only one of the two.
An interesting research theme would be “the Situationist’s attempt to redefine architecture as pure atmospheric”; based on Guy Debord’s ‘Introduction to a Critique of Urban Geography’ (1955). How are the different atmospheres in a society? What is the relationship between the people, the building and the atmosphere? At the end, figure out how significant is the role of the architect in the design of atmosphere and what control does he have over it.