Silence in Architecture = silence in music = ground in figure/ground = the stone that is taken away to reveal the sculpture. It is the frame, it is the space that allows the form to emerge. It allows the visual noise to be seen. There are endless kinds of silence, in architecture and all around us. Silence first, then the insertion of sound.

Lieber Florian,
hier könnten wir uns, so hoffe ich, leicht einigen: das was man halten
sollte, wenn man nichts zu sagen hat - in der Architektur, aber auch darüber
hinaus.
...Schönes Wochenende,
SGe

can´t verify it. Ich höre die Stille

@bart thx... nature has "horror vacui" and man creates a temporal void by listening?

I posted 間"ma" concept at forest yesterday..where " the identity of the place is as much in the mind of the beholder as in its physical characteristics." I know a few places, including architecture makes me silent. But does it architecture ...make me silent or is it elements (stone, light, wood, air or slight sound of water) makes me this effect? or I can be totally silent à la gare de metro parisien... Can we say "this buidling is silent?".. sure but it requires someone to feel that way..is it him silent or a building??

@Aldo oh yes, since you are using poetic language...

Sic: Schweigen oder Stille???

tacet = er/sie/es schweigt/ he/she/it is silent...

I don't want to read the other comments before expressing what was my first thought: John Pawson.
How to explain in English....
If you enter a room and your heart stops to beat for a moment - you keep your breath - and stand there in silence... - impressed by a calming architecture that makes you speechless by its beauty and its asthetic charisma or vibrancy - that's silence in architecture for me. And the first connection of these thoughts were my memories of John Pawsons architecture...
29.1.2011

Oh yes! This I do understand too.
29.1.2011

Sehr geehrter Herr Stocker,
Stille in der Architektur – das ist das Ergebnis demütiger Auseinandersetzung des Planers mit dem Objekt seiner Arbeit – Ort, Landschaft/Stadt-Landschaft, Menschen, Räume. Nicht schon zu Anfang... dynamisch Ärmel hochkrempeln und Großes gestalten wollen, ohne geschaut und gehört zu haben. Und dann überlegen: Wie lässt sich Stille bewahren oder herstellen? Durch eine Formensprache und eine Materialwahl, die nicht nach vordergründigen Effekten heischt, sondern größte Klarheit anstrebt. Und akustisch durch die geschickte Situierung, Drehung, Öffnung/Schließung, das Spiel mit Innen- und Außenraum. Und auch dadurch, einfach mal Natur und bestehendes Gebautes nicht zu verändern.
Beste Grüße
Thomas Drexel
31.1.2011

"Calmness" in structure of material induces silence in visual perception
31.1.2011

On Silence and Light--
"Silence is the unmeasurable or that which has not yet come to be... the unmeasurable is the force that propels the creative spirit toward the measurable, to the Light. When the inspired has reached that which is, that... which known, he has reached the Light. Eloquently expressing the architect's passion for design is the of feeling at the beginning at the threshold where Silence and Light meet. Silence, the unmeasurable, desire to be. Desire to express, the source of new need, meets Light, the measurable, giver of all presence, by will, by law, the measure of thing already made, at a threshold which is inspiration, the sanctuary of art, the treasury of shadow.-- Louis I. Kahn
31.1.2011

It is interesting to me that there are two, very different, concepts of Silence being discussed here. One is experiential and phenomenal (the architectural silence we may experience at Chartres or the Pantheon ... the other is conceptual...... as a precondition that has yet to come into being. (This can be for architecture, but can be seen as more as a precondition for all the arts and even being itself). Kahn’s understanding of silence is interesting to me, for it seems somewhere in between the two... and, in a way, very profound-- for it implies that in the process of making architecture we are making the invisible visible, and silence speak. Silence in this sense is primordial-- a mystery from which architecture (and being human) emerge. The silence we experience in architecture therefore is the “Silence before being” made present.
31.1.2011

Yes John. It's very interesting - there seem to be different understandings of silence in architecture. One of the pictures hasn't to do anything about silence to me.... And it's worth to research to find out why there is so much about light and shadow which I think is not the most important to me..... I have to think this over...
31.1.2011

Wodurch wird "Stille" in der Architektur ausgedrückt? Es ist das zögernde Berührtsein das uns erfasst, wenn wir einen Raum betreten, der uns schlagartig mit Erstaunen erfüllt und uns schweigen lässt, uns in diese Tiefe eindringen lässt - in... das Bewusstsein, etwas Wunderbares zu spüren, etwas, dass uns dank seiner Schönheit staunen lässt, uns auffordert, zu "erspüren" was uns sprachlos gemacht hat. Das uns für einen Moment in der rapiden Geschwindigkeit der Welt, in der wir leben - verharren lässt. Um diese kostbare, verlangsamte Zeit, die die Stille eines Anblicks, eines Raumeindruck uns ermöglicht, schweigend auszukosten.
Sorry, but I can't say this in English.
31.1.2011

"What is silence in Architecture?"
Marietta's comment "If you enter a room and your heart stops to beat for a moment - you keep your breath - and stand there in silence - impressed by a calming architecture that makes you speechless by its ...beauty and its asthetic charisma or vibrancy - that's silence in architecture for me. And the first connection of these thoughts were my memories of John Pawsons architecture..."
I totally agree of this feeling and I'm lucky enough that it also did happen to me several occasion in my life,(kyoto temple especially) although this effect of "encounter" to silent vibration can be reproduced at the moment I encounter with Richter's candle.. the silence its propagate to the surroundings and to a viewer amazingly. but it must be contained also in a structure which withhold this silent vibration.. but if there is no Richter there, probably I do not consider the space silent as although simplified and excellent lighting, the space structure was rather complicated..
so.. what is silence in architecture to me is not the moment of the encounter but... some longer time span.. I stayed a while then architecture as a container start to withhold silence as a content including my existence or others.. that even shut down other noises and we focus only to the senses which maintain and amplify this sense of silence.. like.. the container almost naturally force us to rather see the light coming from outside and make us close our ears not to hear sound of heels... the container gave us a focus...
Well.. I wish it is "feel" able ;-)
1.2.2011

I'll try to use Babelfish (thanks John!) and hope my german expressions may be a little understood:
Whereby " Stille" in architecture is expressed? It is seized by that hesitating affect-affecting if we enter an area, which suddenly fulfills... us with astonishment and lets us be silent, lets us penetrate into this depth - into consciousness to feel something marvelous requests us something that owing to its beauty lets us be astonished, to " erspüren" which made us speechless. For one moment in the rapid speed of the world, in which we live - to remain silent. In order to this precious, slowed down time, which is made possible by the silence of a sight or space impression, to out-cost being silent. "erspüren" = to sense, to perceive
1.2.2011

Is "betrachten" not to observe? Osservare in italian?
2.2.2011

I learned word betrachten in the therapy context ;-) In Jung's active imagination, it was decoded ainsi.
2.2.2011

52 Entries, and now it seems like a little pause.
Thank you very much, you made such beautiful and passionate contributions. I learned a lot. I try to phrase my learning, which comes along a bit dry, but may be it is a little bit of a summa...ry:
proposition #1
Nature is not silent, but we can remain silent
proposition #2
Architecture as "second creation" can not be silent if it is relevant
proposition #3
Silence is created by us as a void in time when we listen
propostion #4
Architecture can stage this momentum
propostion #5
Architecture can be an observatory tool for the horror vacui of nature
propostion #6
Architecture can advance us to listen to the surroundingMehr anzeigen

@Masumi and Aldo: I talked about the word "betrachten" with my british neighbours. In fact it's right, that "to observe" is: "beobachten", not "betrachten". So there doesn't really seem to be an english word as Masumi said. You could translate it with a mixture of words... "Stand there in silence and watch while thinking about it".

"contemplate something" - that's not too bad, is it bros? but would you say "I contemplate a painting"???
would you "view" a painting? :(
"regard" a painting?

@Florian and John: to experience does not necessarily include a view on things....

My answer to this Question is a series of Images i took yesterday.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=46308&id=10000028445055

@Claudia Núnez del Prado thx for asking, One Month one Question! Promise!

Quiet's cool because it actually lets you hear noise from far away, albeit quietly. Whenever I hear the freight train that's a ha...lf mile away, that means it's about to rain. Lunchtime out front offers the happy cacophony of many children in a school yard, reverberating from on top of the other side of the valley. Hearing the constant flow of the Roosevelt Boulevard (US Rt. 1, twelve lanes of traffic also on top of the other side of the valley) at night when the windows are open really puts you to sleep.mQuiet's spectacular precisely because of the things it lets you hear otherwise.

Steven, you'll have to provide some examples, because I don't fully agree with your 'of course' assessment. I can see what you say being true in terms of how a night sky completely devoid of man-made light litera...lly offers the universe, but there's also the joy of exercising focus while searching through a thousand puzzle pieces (all the stars) to find the ones you want (Mars, Jupiter, Saturn). Mars, Jupiter and Saturn are relatively easy to find on a clear night in the city (where you don't see all the stars), because, after the Moon and Venus, they are brighter than the rest of the heavenly bodies.