Envisioning ambiances: Representing (past,present and future) atmospheres for architecture and the built environment

¹ ENSA Nantes − CRENAU/AAU UMR-CNRS1563, France
² Department of Digital Technologies in Architecture and Urban Planning, Institute of Architecture and Urban Planning, Lodz University of Technology, Lodz (Lodz), Poland

Abstract

The concept of “ambiance” has been shaped over the years by questioning the interactions between three attractors: architecture and the city, climatic and sound phenomena, uses and perception. Studied in pairs, each of these attractors refers to very different disciplinary fields; architecture and phenomena concern the physics of the city, architecture and uses interest sociology and uses and phenomena are rather turned to comfort. Studies concerning ambiances are therefore highly interdisciplinary and raise many questions: living spaces, urban renewal and heritage, urban prospective and the city as a stage. For this, many conceptual and technical tools are mobilized: digital tools for simulation and immersion, investigation, surveys and storytelling, prototyping, field action. What may be new in the field of academic studies is the awareness of artistic creation as a resource for the use of digital tools, storytelling and the representation of complexity through original means.