The International Ambiances Network was launched in 2008 during the First International Congress 'Faire une ambiance - Creating an atmosphere'. The network was then coordinated - under the direction of Jean-Paul Thibaud - by a small team of researchers, PhD students and research staff who belonged to the Cresson and Cerma research groups (the former names of the current Ambiances, Architectures, Urbanities research unit) in Grenoble and Nantes. Initially, the network essentially represented existing research partnerships, and its first 'members' were mostly colleagues, located in France and abroad, with whom we already worked within research programmes on atmospheres.