Introducion: Contemporary architectural discourse has increasingly shifted from the objective qualities of space toward the experiential and affective dimensions of human–environment relations. Within this perspective, atmosphere has emerged as a critical concept for understanding how spatial qualities are perceived, felt, and embodied. Gernot Böhme conceptualizes atmosphere as an in-between phenomenon that arises through the interaction of material settings and bodily perception, transcending the traditional subject–object dichotomy. Despite growing scholarly interest in atmospheric studies, limited attention has been paid to the role of atmosphere in memorial museums, particularly within the context of war remembrance spaces. This study investigates the spatial atmosphere of the Holy Defense Museum in Tehran, aiming to explain how atmospheric qualities emerge through the interplay between architectural materiality and embodied experience, and how they contribute to the perception of memory, meaning, and historical presence.

Methods: This qualitative study employs an interpretive phenomenological approach to examine the emergence and transformation of spatial atmosphere in the Tehran Museum of the Islamic Revolution and Holy Defense. Atmosphere is conceptualized as a relational and experiential quality arising in the in-between of environmental conditions and embodied perception. The unit of analysis is defined as a spatial-perceptual situation with atmospheric capacity, rather than the visitor as an individual statistical unit or space as a fixed physical entity. Data were collected through eight direct field visits involving systematic observation, embodied sensory engagement, spatial analysis, and field-note recording. Purposive, criterion-based sampling was used to select spatial-perceptual situations capable of revealing differences, intensities, and transformations in atmospheric qualities. Field records distinguished descriptive observations from phenomenological reflections and subsequent theoretical interpretations. Analysis proceeded iteratively from spatial situations and descriptive observations to meaning units, initial conceptual codes, atmospheric categories, and relational mechanisms, followed by interpretation through Gernot Böhme’s theory of atmosphere. This analytical sequence enabled the tracing of how atmospheric qualities emerge through the interplay of spatial organization, materiality, light, sound, movement, and embodied presence.

Results: The findings indicate that the spatial atmosphere of the Tehran Museum of the Islamic Revolution and Holy Defense is neither inherent solely in the material configuration of space nor reducible to subjective experience; rather, it emerges relationally through the interaction of environmental conditions and embodied perception. The analysis identifies atmosphere as a dynamic and time-dependent quality that develops through the co-occurrence of spatial, sensory, material, and bodily conditions. Spatial experience is progressively transformed through sequences of transition, suspension, intensification, and readjustment, whereby movement and pause contribute to the emergence and modulation of atmospheric qualities. The findings further indicate that light, sound, materiality, spatial organization, and movement acquire atmospheric significance through their interrelations rather than as isolated elements. In the museum’s memorial context, these relations contribute to the spatialization of memory by bringing historical content into embodied experience in the present. The analysis also identifies an intersubjective capacity of atmosphere, whereby the co-presence and shared spatial rhythms of bodies create conditions for collective experience without implying identical responses among visitors. Overall, the findings formulate atmosphere through three interrelated logics: co-occurrence, sequencing, and intensity regulation.

Discussion: The findings support an understanding of atmosphere not as an inherent property of space or a purely subjective perceptual state, but as a relational and time-dependent quality emerging between environmental conditions and embodied perception. In the Holy Defense Museum, atmospheric experience is constituted through the co-occurrence of spatial organization, materiality, light, sound, movement, and bodily presence, while its transformation unfolds through sequences of transition, suspension, intensification, and readjustment. From this perspective, the study extends Böhme’s atmospheric theory by clarifying how spatial sequencing and multisensory relations contribute to the emergence and modulation of atmospheric qualities. It further demonstrates that, within memorial architecture, atmosphere provides a medium through which historical content becomes embodied and present, thereby contributing to the spatialization of memory. The study therefore conceptualizes atmosphere as a relational field connecting environmental conditions, bodily engagement, and mnemonic experience rather than as a fixed spatial attribute. Its theoretical contribution lies in formulating an integrated analytical framework that links atmosphere, embodiment, memory, and spatial experience through three interrelated logics: co-occurrence, sequencing, and intensity regulation. Although limited to a single case study, this framework provides a basis for comparative investigation of atmospheric experience in memory-oriented and cultural environments.