The Place of Silence

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 * Libraries were filled with the sounds of noisy mumblers prior to silent reading. Rather than absence, silence – like a pregnant pause – is often replete with significance. 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. Figuring in these accounts are the stories of modern and historical architects, artists, musicians and philosophers acting across many scales from landscape to theaters and even within private toilet rooms. In today’s cacophony when people are enamored with technology as an immediate universal salve, 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 *