Drozd, Céline <br/><br/>
Representations of Atmosphere during the Design Phase in Architecture 

 -  2010.<br/>							 
<br/><br/> 86 
<br/><br/> From the beginning of the design phase, some architects put a sensitive aspect in the representations they produce, proposing a multi-sensorial approach of the place they’re designing. The article wonders about the ability of images to reflect the atmospheres projected by architects. The difficult part – as Marc Crunelle explains in L’Architecture et nos sens – is to represent by visual means only, perceptions experienced by all our senses, While architects have always used various tools and modes of representation in order to translate projected atmospheres, we study images and discourses of two contemporary architects. The present-time is marked by the development of digital tools. We draw a parallel between projected atmospheres and users’ experiences with a comparative study of two buildings: the Thermes de Vals (Vals, Switzerland, 1996, Peter Zumthor) and the Bains des Docks (Le Havre, France, 2008, Jean Nouvel). We look into different modes of representing the atmospheres produced by the architects (sketches, digital images, photomontages, drawings, animated films…) as well as into users’ experiences which we collected thanks to the commented course method. Thereby we see how the architecture of two buildings with similar functions is represented during the different conception stages until the appropriation by users, even though architects have a different personal approach. Our aim is to identify and qualify the representations of atmosphere which allow final users to perceive it.