Forms, Formants and Formalities: Categories for Analysing the Urban Environment

Compared to the original text, some missing references have been added.However, it was not possible to add all the missing references.Translator's note: Grgoire Chelkoff originally borrowed the term formant from phonetics, where it refers to the frequencies that come to characterise a sound.In English one can use formative as a noun in this situation, but formant retains a gerundive vestige from the French (as in nouns like mordant, from the world of printmaking) to convey a sense of process or of becoming that is essential to the notion of ambiances as dynamic experiences.1The overall thrust of this paper concerns how we analyse our environment and construct the public space through our senses.It also factors ambiance-related aspects into this analysis of built systems. 1 The core idea underlying our approach is that when the public space is seen as more than just an abstract notion or as empty space between buildings, it acquires specific sensory contours that comprise environmental and spatial data, perceptual aspects and modes of use.We should not think of the public Forms, Formants and Formalities: Categories for Analysing the Urban Environment Ambiances , Redcouvertes Starting with the Sensory EnvironmentWe propose approaching urban public spaces by means of the sensory environment and phenomena of ambiance. 3 In fact, architecture does more than organise spaces; it builds environments and defines "ambiances".For however foundational this aspect is to construction, it is often forgotten in architectural theory, and it is becoming all the Forms, Formants and Formalities: Categories for Analysing the Urban Environment