Our starting point is the established fact that learning the architectural design primarily on an intellectualised and rationalist approach too often leads to a lack of contact with lived reality. We propose to the Strasbourg school of architecture students sensory and emotional experiences to live architecture. These experiences put them in a position of ‘floating attention’ with the goal to let the ‘unthought’ come, starting from the feeling of their own presence. They open a passage between feelings and words, between the sensitive real-life experience and the practice of the project. The sharing of the experiences leads to the characterisation of the atmospheres of a place.