places the sensing body as the primary means of perception to explore embodied perception and atmopsheres (or ambiances) in the public spaces of More London, a mixed-used business development located in London Bridge on the south bank of the River Thames. Following Suzie Attiwill’s (2011) principle of “spatial inversion”, whereby spaces between buildings habitually referred to as exteriors become interiors, this location sits at the boundaries between inside and outside, private and public, enclosed and open space. These distinctive attributes and promise of interiority made it an ideal site of enquiry into the way the urban interior resonates with our senses.
London Bridge, located at the heart of the city’s ancient interior, on the south bank of the River Thames, is a bustling, vibrant urban environment with a rich interplay of sensory diversity. It is stimulating but also frantic, even chaotic at times, when the momentum of people negotiating each other on the narrow pavements reaches its peak. Peaceful and secluded public spaces are a rarity, personal space is at a premium. Yet, a mere five-minute walk from the drama of its epicentre, along Tooley Street bearing east towards Tower Bridge, lies the More London Estate. Developed on a brownfield site, a legacy of the London docks and industries, the topography is organised and spacious and the site includes generous public spaces. Framed by the height of the buildings, these offer an opportunity for a respite from the intensity of the surrounding activities. Like interiors, their precise volumes provide a sense of enclosure. Yet, the imposing steel and glass structures, their overwhelming scale, sharp angles and hard surfaces did not seem to resonate with the senses in a way that could promote a deep connection between body and space. This observation prompted an enquiry into the design, materiality and sensory characteristics of the location.
The processes developed for this research were inspired by the writings of Joy Monice Malnar and Frank Vovarka (2004) and Peter Zumthor (2006). I also adapted principles of data visualisation to document environmental conditions in fieldwork studies and gain insights into perceived atmospheric qualities deemed intangible. Whilst maintaining the focus on multisensory phenomena, visualising embodied dimensions of experience (direct perception and mental images) enabled me to overcome intrinsic limitations of qualitative investigations to not only uncover what the environment felt like but also why. Techniques included sketches and annotations, film and sound recordings, atmospheric mapping and diagrams, notably the Sensory Flow diagram revisited and adapted to numerous projects by me and others since.
Related articles
Mace, Valérie (2014) Sensing the Urban Interior - [in]arch conference proceedings, Universitas Indonesia, Jakarta.
Mace, Valérie (2016) Mapping the atmospheric experience - Rencontre Annuelle d'Ethnographie, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS), Paris, France.
Presentation
Mace, Valérie (2016) La programmation de l’atmosphère dans l’espace urbain - Rencontre Annuelle d'Ethnographie, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS), Paris, France.
References
Attiwill, S. (2011). Urban and Interior: techniques for an urban interiorist. In R. U. Hinkel, (Ed.), Urban Interior - informal explorations, interventions and occupations (pp. 12-24). School of Architecture and Desing, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia. Baunach: Spurbuchverlag.
Malnar, J. M. & Vodvarka, F. (2004). Sensory Design. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Zumthor’ P. (2006). Atmospheres. Basel, Switzerland: Birkhauser.