Emotions and Atmospheric Architectures: A Future for Finding Past Feelings

The various architectures that have emerged throughout the historic past have always had the ability to inspire and affect the passions, emotions, or feelings of those who encounter them. The means by which these places and spaces gain the power to influence emotion is through the atmospheres, or ambiences, that they house. Discussing the importance of architectural atmospheres for developing our knowledge of the emotional landscapes of the past, this essay argues that an atmospheric approach to exploring the relationship between past architectures and emotions has the potential to enhance our understanding of the ways in which individual architectures and wider built-up environments were affected by, and helped shape, the passions, emotions, and feelings of the historic past.