Urban Atmospheres between East and West

Exploring Affect, Identity, and Mobility
1. Auflage 2026
ISBN: 978-1-041-28699-8
Verlag: Taylor & Francis Ltd

Buch, Englisch, 232 Seiten, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 234 mm

Reihe: Routledge Research in Planning and Urban Design

Urban atmospheres shape how we experience and understand the spaces we inhabit. Urban Atmospheres between East and West is the first collective work to explore this topic from an inter-cultural perspective, spanning diverse locations such as China, Malaysia, Japan, France, Italy, and Cyprus. This groundbreaking volume addresses the need to foreground under-represented Eastern contexts while pairing them with resonant Western counterparts, offering a fresh lens on the dynamic interplay of culture and space.

Organised into four thematic parts, the book’s ten chapters establish a comparative dialogue that bridges East and West. By tracing atmospheres that migrate across cultures and crystallise in sites of hybridity, the volume redefines atmosphere as an active, relational field. Readers will gain insights into how urban spaces mediate affective responses and negotiate concepts such as home, belonging, infrastructure, and spatial justice. This trans-cultural approach opens new pathways for understanding the relational dynamics of urban life.

This edited volume is an essential resource for scholars and professionals in architecture, urban studies, sociology, media studies, anthropology, and geography. It is particularly valuable for academics, urban planners, cultural geographers, and researchers seeking to explore how urban spaces evoke and shape emotional and cultural experiences.

Zielgruppe

Academic, Postgraduate, and Undergraduate Advanced

Autoren/Hrsg.

Han, Jiawen

Matteis, Federico De

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Architektur Städtebau, Stadtplanung (Architektur)
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Spezielle Soziologie Stadt- und Regionalsoziologie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction: The diversity of urban atmospheres: Affective cities between East and West (Jiawen Han, Federico De Matteis) Part 1: Atmosphere, and Urban-Architectural Dynamics 1. The city as a separation of (atmospheric) powers (Tonino Griffero) 2. Affective Atmosphere as Method: Spatial Revitalization in Suzhou's Old Town (Jiawen Han) 3. Ma, Oku and Harappa: Urban Atmospheres in the Discourse of Postwar Japanese Architects (Kenta Matsui) Part 2: Urban Atmospheres and Multicultural Cities 4. Crowdscapes: The Atmospheres of Urban Congestion (Federico De Matteis) 5. Re-Routing Chinatown: Navigating Urban Atmosphere of intercultural Kuala Lumpur Chinatown (Yat Ming Loo) 6. Resonances and Shared Echoes in the City of Nicosia (Roberta Manno) Part 3: Affective Dynamics and Urban Belonging in the Face of Mega-projects 7. Affective Exclusion and Unbelonging in the Chinese Megacity (Leif Johnson) 8. The ZAD from the City: Collective Atmospheres of Protest (Alberta Piselli) Part 4 Atmospheres in Motion: Between Urban and Rural 9. Atmospheres in Motion: Between Urban and Rural: Affective Topographies and Atmospheric Dimension of Italy’s Inner-Area Villages (Camilla Sette) 10. Emotional Resilience and Spatial Hybridity: Migrant-Driven Urban Atmosphere Production in Chongqing’s Public Rental Housing (Jie Xiong) Conclusion: Four notes on urban atmospheres (Federico De Matteis, Jiawen Han)

Über Autor(innen)

Jiawen Han is an Associate Professor in the Department of Architecture, Design School, at the Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, Suzhou. She holds a PhD in architecture from the University of New South Wales, Sydney, and is the author of China’s Architecture in a Globalizing World: Between Socialism and the Market (Routledge, 2018). She also recently co-authored the book Chinese Cities as Pedagogies: Interdisciplinary Teaching Practice (Palgrave Macmillan, 2025) with Xiangwen Kuang and Guanghui Ding. Her research interests span contemporary Chinese architecture and architects, the intersection of architecture and media, and the affective dimensions of urban transformation.

Federico De Matteis is an architect and full Professor of Design at the University of L’Aquila, Italy, where he serves as chair of the PhD program in Civil, Building-Architectural and Environmental Engineering. His research work focuses on the affective dimension of space and the corporeal resonance between the experiencing subject and architecture, and on the tools to express this relationship. His recent books are Affective Spaces. Architecture and the Living Body (Routledge, 2020), I sintomi dello spazio. Corpo architettura città (Mimesis, 2021); The Affective City: 1. Spaces, Atmospheres and Practices in Changing Urban Territories and 2. Abitare il terremoto (edited with S. Catucci, LetteraVentidue, 2021 and 2022).