The phenomenological concept of urban atmospheres is more often applied as an aesthetic description of the metropolitan space as such. This conceptualization is supported in this paper; however, I strive to give the concept a post-phenomenological axial turn. While phenomenology, due to its understanding of atmospheres as aesthetically ‘radiating’ from the surfaces of space, thinks physiognomically, the article argues for a spatial morphological perspective on atmospheres. Thus, post-phenomeno¬logically, it is argued that the atmospheric given is given by the density of pedestrians, which are ‘compressed’ by the spatial morphologies of urban space. In this perspective atmospheres are to be understood as an emergent property that develops when the spatial morphological compression of urban life passes a certain threshold, that is, when the affective rhythm of the urban assemblages becomes sufficiently intense. All things considered, the paper should be read as a sociological contribution to theoretically reconstruct the concept of urban atmospheres in the light of spatial morphology.