This book offers an ethnographic exploration of the role that atmosphere
plays in work processes undertaken within an urban design studio. It
provides understandings of how architectural practices are fuelled with
atmosphere in various configurations throughout different design phases
of selected projects for construction. From the outside architectural
practices commonly appear well-ordered and carefully considered,
established by proof and rationally justified. This book though poaches
on architects' preserves in order to draw attention to features of
unpredictability and uncertainty within the design phases. By opening up
into the 'machinery room' of urban designers, the goal is not to spoil
the plaster saint cover of a 'starchitect' business, but to remind about
the crucial value that pockets of doubt issuing questions rather than
answers, open-mindedness instead of single-mindedness, play to the
processes of design production and creativity. The book identifies these
pockets as atmospheres enveloping the architectural practice.