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This chapter proposes a place atmosphere model, which can be used for all types of space, from the landscape to the municipality to the property. In addition to the emotional aspects, this atmosphere model also describes the socio-cultural, economic and ecologic dimensions that can shape an atmosphere. It is modelled in such a way to permit connecting to the theory and practice of brand and destination management in particular and to the model and process ideas of the planning, design and construction industries.

This study aims to explore aesthetic atmospheres and their affordances in urban squares to advance knowledge on the research and design of attractive living environments.

Descriptions of pleasant and unpleasant experiences of urban squares were collected using qualitative questionnaires with open-ended questions. The theoretical framework and the lens of aesthetic affordances were applied to pinpoint and understand the connections between the place attributes and experiences.

This study found four distinct aesthetic atmospheres formed by perceived synergies of both the material and immaterial aspects of the environment. It was also found that the atmospheres may shift. A model that shows the aesthetic atmospheres and their potential affordances as layered and emerging is presented.

Everyday aesthetics considered as affordances open new research perspectives for the understanding of what generates attractive living environments – or not.

Aesthetics affordances may provide the design professionals and alike means on how to design places that engender specific aesthetic atmosphere.

Gathering and discussing commonplace aesthetic experiences in everyday life may enhance democratic participation in place development among people with different levels of design expertise.

This study combines theories of place with a novel concept of aesthetic affordances to identify distinct aesthetic atmospheres. A holistic overview structure of how the various constituents of aesthetic atmospheres relate to each other provides new ways of studying and understanding urban aesthetic atmospheres.

This contribution deals with the effects of atmospheres. It considers the interest in atmospheres as part of a fundamental change in the mode of individual reasoning which is characterised in contemporary post-industrial societies by an ‘experience orientation’. Atmospheres, which highlight the fact that the subjective state of a person can change in relation to the sensory qualities of the environment, become an interesting concept within this development. The chapter starts from the observation that – in spite of the importance that atmospheres have for spaces of leisure and tourism – there is little research on atmospheres in leisure and tourism studies. It presents three dimensions of effects of atmospheres (emotions and affective tonalities, attention, gesture) that allow us to understand why and how atmospheres matter. The second part links the effects of atmospheres to leisure and tourism, where it proposes distinguishing the corporeal and the sociocultural dimensions of atmospheres. Finally, it discusses the possibilities of designing atmospheres and stresses the necessity for further empirical research.

Comparing two different descriptions of the atmosphere of one and the same city allows for interesting insights regarding the production, duration and perception of urban atmospheres. Aspects of time are very important in this context as they form typical atmospheres here and always, ensure that the patina of the city and the people is based on experience, and generate expectations prior to actually felt-bodily perceptions by means of narration. Changes in environmental qualities or modes of perception can provide clues to both typologies of places and the people present. Moreover, this chapter introduces the Atmospheric Portfolio, which illustrates how research on personal atmospheric perception as well as site-specific atmospheres of a location becomes possible. In the sense of further heuristic starting points, methods employed by other research projects will supplement the study.

First, this chapter traces how the concept of atmosphere has evolved in the fields of theology, philosophy, geography, sociology, psychology and architecture. Then it analyses the question of how to describe atmospheres and how to deepen the perception of atmospheres through market research. Finally, the chapter discusses the possibilities and limits of naming and typologising atmospheres.

The rhythmic patterns of urban mobilities, and their fluctuations and modifications across the day, give the streets their perceived and experienced atmosphere and character. This paper examines such street atmospheres and focusses on the role of embodied mobility rhythms in the (re)making of the atmospheres throughout the day. Utilising a rhythmanalytical framework and research data comprising videoed site observations and on-site fieldnotes, the study analyses ‘crepuscular’ (behaviour taking place during the twilight hours of the day, at dawn and dusk) mobility rhythms that reveal internal tensions and modalities of urban sites across a 24-hour period. The analysis highlights the connections between fluctuating pressures of motor traffic and mobile embodied appropriations of the space in the making of the streetscape and its changing atmospheres between the ‘day-time city’ and the ‘night-time city’. The chapter demonstrates that an analytical focus on such ‘in-between’ temporalities of the twilight can help to map the complex and multifaceted urban polyrhythmia, which, in turn, might provide new insight for rhythm-based perspectives towards urban atmospheres and street spaces as sites of urban social life.

This introduction to the volume Atmospheric Turn in Culture and Tourism: Place, Design and Process Impacts on Customer Behaviour, Marketing and Branding (Emerald) positions the atmospheric turn in the context of recent paradigmatic turns such as the linguistic turn, iconic turn, cultural turn, spatial turn, mobility turn and design turn. The specific contribution of the atmospheric turn is its profoundly holistic interest in overarching connections which are perceived with all senses and include both matter and idea. With its 22 chapters, this volume sets out to sharpen the atmospheric gaze and perception in research and beyond.

Brand theory and practice have remained quite two-dimensional to this day and focus on logos, corporate design, website design, etc. As with atmospheres, it was the sales room where the brand idea was spatialised early on. This chapter discusses how to spatialise brand theory and to connect it with the place atmosphere model. Moreover, the chapter works out how the bridge between the strategy of an organisation (company, hotel, destination, etc.), its brand personality and the strategy of spatial design can be built. The brand personality shows itself in the long-term handling of the eight W questions of the brand space strategy (Who, Where, Wherein, What, Whom, Way to, What for and Why).

Although tourist experience has been considerably studied, there is a dearth of research on spiritual cognitive stages in tourism literature. Therefore, this paper aims to reveal the dimensions of the tourist experience based on numinosity context.

A qualitative method is used by the etic and emic approach with an ethnographic background. After observation and active participation in the field, data was collected from 44 participants with semi-structured interviews to reveal their numinous experiences dimensions.

The results show that numinous experience in three categories (mysterium, tremendum and fascinans) can be evaluated in seven dimensions including history, story, awe, reverence, atmosphere, place-based and nature-based dimensions.

This study provides managerial and practical implications for tourism stakeholders to be aware of numinous experiences and to better manage sacred places.

This paper offers a novel tourist experience design in the numinous context to the best of the authors’ knowledge.

Using service-based logic as its theoretical lens, this study aims to approach residents’ place satisfaction in a novel way. The purpose is to explore residents’ perception of the place in which they live and to shed new light on their place satisfaction.

The paper is based on explorative qualitative focus group research. Data were collected in two typical municipalities in southern Sweden. The sampling procedure was purposive, resulting in six focus groups, consisting of a total of 33 residents. The empirical material was transcribed and analyzed using a structured content analysis inspired by grounded theory.

A model for understanding residents’ perceptions of what constitutes a good place to live is introduced. The model shows that many value propositions are produced in the provider sphere, independent of the user, for example by the municipality or the business sector. Other value propositions are co-created in a joint sphere, meaning that the user is actively involved in the production of these value propositions. The resident then uses different value propositions to create value-in-use in the resident sphere, independent of the provider, and to co-create value-in-use in the joint sphere.

The study creates a bridge between the stream of research on place satisfaction and studies that take stakeholders and co-creation into consideration; it shifts from the prevalent provider perspective on place branding and static place attributes to a focus on the relationship between users and providers.