The notion of atmosphere occupies an increasingly central role in present-day discussions of design, affect, architecture and sensory environments. It is mobilized in particular to emphasize and shed light on a pre-subjective, embodied apprehension of spatially discharged moods. This article especially focuses on how the notion of atmosphere offers new ways of understanding the relations between architecture and politics. Specifically, we explore such relations via the philosophical reflections on atmosphere as found in Gernot Böhme’s and Peter Sloterdijk’s work. We suggest that, in spite of significant difference between Böhme and Sloterdijk, they each offers important insights into how architecture and politics are entangled. After a brief outline of each of their general atmospheric projects, we demonstrate the different critical potential their analyses of architecture and the politics of space entail.