The Place of Silence: Architecture / Media / Philosophy

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The Place of Silence examines the poetics and politics of silence in architecture. Silence and quietness are terms often used by designers and critics to describe buildings, but the terms carry complex and varied meanings which demand interpretation if the power of silence in architecture is to be fully understood. From the buildings of John Hejduk to auditory landscapes and the loss of silence in the contemporary urban world, the book explores questions of sound and atmosphere through the lens of architecture and place. Examining the diverse practices, politics and cultural meanings of silent places and buildings in historical and contemporary contexts, the case studies in this book connect a number of themes from the creation of atmospheric spaces to ideas of attunement and mood in architecture making The Place of Silence the key resource to understanding this often-overlooked aspect of architecture and architectural design.

Reviews

There is an essential relation between place and silence. In The Place of Silence, Mark Dorrian and Christos Kakalis allow us to explore that relation in its multiplicity of forms through a wonderful array of essays essays that move across different places and spaces and through a variety of media and disciplines. The result is a ground-breaking work that allows new insights into the character, not only of place and silence, but also of sound and space, emptiness and fullness, presence and absence, listening and attention, stillness and withdrawal. This is a book for everyone who has ever listened to the silence of a place or wondered at the place of silence itself. * Professor Jeff Malpas, Distinguished Professor, University of Tasmania *
This array of lucid essays by respected scholars skillfully plumbs the many dimensions of silence in architecture: spaces, objects, materials, thoughts, cultural practices, atmospheres and the chthonic. . . . this book is a must-read for anyone seeking a quieter, subtler, deeper human-centered alternative that sings with unexpected approaches. * Professor Paul Emmons, Washington-Alexandria Architecture Center, Virginia Tech, USA *

Author Bio

Mark Dorrian holds the Forbes Chair in Architecture at the University of Edinburgh, UK and co-directs Metis, an atelier for art, architecture and urbanism. He has been a visiting professor at the Arkitektskolen Aarhus, Denmark; University of Michigan, USA; and Tianjin University, China; and a visiting scholar at the Canadian Centre for Architecture, Canada. Christos Kakalis is an architect and Lecturer in Architecture at the School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape of Newcastle University, UK.