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The theme of this year’s meeting of the Working Group on Spatial Phenomenology is the “built world” as a socio-material reality.

How can urban planning, (landscape) architecture, and designed spaces be understood from a phenomenological perspective—that is, not primarily as objects or pure materiality, but as phenomenal spaces of experience, a powerful world of things, or atmospheres as “tuned spaces” (Böhme 2006)?

Planning, thinking, drafting on the drawing board, writing. Architecture often looks good, but how it feels and what concrete impact it has on everyday life cannot be grasped without experiencing it as a whole with all the physical senses (Pallasmaa 2024).

Spaces are highly political. The way buildings, squares, and urban structures are designed influences their use and who can use them. The atmosphere of a place thus reflects power relations, belonging, or exclusion (Hasse 2016).

The third meeting of the Working Group on Spatial Phenomenology will explore this in greater detail.

Curious? You can find the program here. Registration is now open.

Böhme, G. (2006): Architektur und Atmosphäre. Verlag Wilhelm Fink: Paderborn. 

Hasse, J. (2016): Kritische Phänomenologie des Raumes. Was Räume mit uns machen - und wir mit ihnen. Verlag Karl Aber: Baden-Baden.

Pallasmaa, J. (2024 [1996]): The eyes of the skin: Architecture and the senses. 4. Aufl., John Wiley & Sons: Hoboken (NJ).