Developed within the framework of a French interdisciplinary research program and a design studio Master’s program of the Grenoble School of Architecture’s entitled Architecture, Cultures of the Senses and the Environment, we have explored the notion of the “Urban Section” as a meeting-point between global environmental issues and situated, atmospheric qualities of space, as experienced through spatial practices. This initial idea was to develop the capacity of the urban section as a mode of representation allowing for the articulation of components of the urban milieu that are almost always considered separately from one another; built objects, the sensory realm and social practices. It was developed in the form of an exploratory, applied approach concerning specific environmental preoccupations; rising summer temperatures in the city of Grenoble (2007- 2010) and the handling of solid waste in the city of Sao Paolo (2009-2010).