Architecture and Silence

Book excerpt: This book explores the role of silence in how we design, present and experi-ence architecture. Grounded in phenomenological theory, the book builds on historical, theoretical and practical approaches to examine silence as a methodological tool of architectural research and unravel the experiential qualities of the design process. Distinct from an entirely soundless experience, silence is proposed as a material condition organically incorporated into the built and natural landscape. Kakalis argues that, either human or atmospheric, silence is a condition of waiting for a sound to be born or a new spatio-temporal event to emerge. In silence, therefore, we are attentive and attuned to the atmos-phere of a place. The book unpacks a series of stories of silence in religious topographies, urban landscapes, film and theatre productions and architec-tural education with contributed chapters and interviews with Jeff Malpas and Alberto Pérez-Gómez. Aimed at postgraduate students, scholars and researchers in architectural theory, it shows how performative and atmospheric qualities of silence can build a new understanding of architectural experience.