The Production of Atmospheres

Atmospheres are fundamental for the affective experience of urban places. For this reason, atmospherics have become a crucial tool for urban practitioners interested in creating immersive experiences in vibrant spaces, usually with the purpose of regenerating consumption- or tourism-oriented areas. In this chapter, I explore the outcomes and limitations of this approach, by outlining the three main modes of atmospheric production, namely constructing (or designing), staging, and performing atmospheres, and how they contribute towards the goals of affective urbanism under the perspective of the experience economy. After this, I describe how this atmospheric production is employed by a wide range of urban actors in tourism-led urban regenerationUrban regeneration processes across Europe. As I explore the consequences of the introduction of novel tourism-oriented atmospheres, I highlight the ‘People live here’ campaign in Lisbon, a grassroots-organized campaign against the collateral atmospheres of urban tourism, as a starting point to reflect about the need to understand the limits to atmospheric production and to think about the right to atmosphere.