Why do natives who live in those cities go to the Old Town? One person said, you go for dinner, for atmosphere in a club in the basement of an old building, for a different ambience. What is ambience? It is more than different buildings and styles and spaces; it means different motions and ways of standing and sitting, different ways of ritualizing actions and giving meaning to movements. The ambience lets people be a little differently.
What's the economic function of ambience? From the point of view of the institution providing it, ambience is for getting a share of the flow of people and resources. When what flows has a choice, ambience can be a competitive advantage. At the other extreme, government offices don't need ambience, because they don't need to attract people. The government has its own flows (of resources, of legitimacy) that people want to tap into.
(c) David Kolb, 1 August 2001