(Peter Zumthor, Atmospheres, 2000)

Mohammed Mustafa
Basically, philosophic doctrine familiarizes the concept of how one’s environment influence the
fundamental character of lived experience. Place does not refer to the locality, but contains of aspects
that collectively consolidate to form the environment's personality. Human value and engagement are
principal to the rationality of design and construction. Peter Zumthor emphasizes the sensory
characteristics of architecture. He aims to explore the theoretical and transcendental dimension of
meaning in architecture.
Zumthor achieves to describe the perception of atmospheres, and how one must take into
consideration nine different qualities to achieve this. A process of observation and appreciation is
crucial as he proceeds to explain that architecture is not merely an automated, apathetic process but
one that involves emotive feel and human understanding. It is an art that engages people and highly
influences their state of mind, engaging all senses. Something inside us tells us an enormous amount
straight away, we are capable of immediate appreciation, of a spontaneous emotional response of
rejecting things in a flash that is very different from linear thought, which we are equally capable of,
and which I love too thinking our way through things from A to B in a mentally organized fashion.
Comfort and familiars, even if not physically familiar but psychological could make a space that
defines an individual’s connection with the place. Components that affect this are mentioned to be the
sound of space. Interiors (like instruments) collect sound, amplify it and transmit it. The shape of a
room and its material composition affects this creation of sound. A familiar sound eases one into their
surroundings allowing them to make associations with memory.

In a nutshell: A complete balance in the tension among interior and exterior is accomplished by
constructing thresholds deceiving the eye. A transformation between inside and outside must generate
mystery, leading to the levels of intimacy. How the facade expresses are down to the vicinity,
distance, size, dimension, scale, and the gravity of things. He gives life to architecture by referring to
the dialogue of buildings, bringing great significance to first impressions. How does a building speak
to you? What does it say? Does it stand grand and proud, or does it delude you? Its dialogue is due to
the form; the variation between interior and exterior, the size and grandeur. Zumthor describes how
some spaces allow you to breath, while others intimidate. When buildings become intelligible
everything refers to everything else and it is impracticable to remove a single thing without destroying
the whole. From the principal stages of construction and anatomy, where its biology enquires for
rational fashion, architecture develops to an art that must apparently move the person. It must be
beautiful. Its dialogue, silence, anatomy, but mostly, its atmosphere.