ABOUT

Sonorous Cities: Towards a Sonic Urbanism (SONCITIES) is a research project formed at the intersection of sound, urbanism, and critical spatial practices. Our aim is to better understand cities and urban life through a critical investigation of the sonic conditions of cities, and of people’s experiences of urban sound environments; to make critical and creative interventions into urban sound environments; and to support architects, designers, and spatial practitioners in embracing sonic modes of urban analysis and design.

PROJECT OVERVIEW

Architecture and urban design, disciplines heavily rooted in visual epistemologies, have long neglected sound, or else treated it in very limited ways: as a physical quantity that can be modelled and controlled; or else as noise, something to be reduced or eliminated. What is missing in these approaches is an appreciation of the creative potential of sound to shape urban space—and, equally, of the ways in which urban soundscapes are indicative of broader social, political, and spatial conditions in cities.

SONCITIES will bring together sound theorists, urban sociologists, architects, urban designers and sound artists to develop critical approaches to sonic urbanism. First, we will conduct ethnographic research with urban residents and communities, aiming to discover how people experience and shape sound environments in their everyday lives. On this basis we will host a series of workshops to generate new modes of sonic urban analysis in dialogue with spatial practitioners internationally. Finally, we will develop new approaches to sonic urban design in the context of Design Weeks, public exhibitions, and creative sonic interventions in cities.

Our goal is to foster socially conscious approaches to sonic urban practice, whether in terms of research, analysis, and/or design. We also seek to support a more nuanced, critical, and creative appreciation of sound as an element of the urban environment and of urban life in architecture and urban design.