It all began with a “ visit ” to Daniel Libeskind’s Jewish Museum in Berlin. As he walked through the concrete voids of the complex, architect Atonio de Clemente García “physically” experienced that architecture cannot be separated from the perception of sound.
After watching the documentary *Architectures: Le Musée juif de Berlin*, by Richard Copans and Stan Neumann, he concluded that “what truly moves us about a space lies in what is invisible and what a photograph can never capture.”
With a background in architecture, music, and the “ Master's Degree ” ( programs of study ) curatorial program at the University of Navarra, his “ research ” combines these three disciplines, giving shape to a “ project ”multidisciplinary “that is essential for awakening sensitivity to space,” he explains.
In this interview, he discusses his book * research*, titled “Sound in the Sensory Perception of Architecture: Design Strategies,” edited by Francesc Daumal i Doménech, Full Professor , of the * School of Architecture * in Barcelona, and Carlos Chocarro, professor at the * School of Architecture * at the University of Navarra.
Architecture is usually designed to be seen, not heard…
Although contemporary architecture has often fallen into the trap of ocularcentrism, reducing itself to a stream of photogenic images for screens that create silent environments, architecture resonates through what Steen Eiler Rasmussen called “ subject s that reflect form.”
We perceive the dimensions and scale of a space based on how its surfaces reflect sound, allowing us to sense the space without having to look at it.
What does architecture sound like?
The architecture resonates with the sound of exposed concrete, which echoes and amplifies the rhythm of one’s own breath; or with sounds such as the murmur of water, the rhythmic crunch of gravel, or rain falling on rooftops. In * final*, the auditory dimension reveals a haptic quality of the * subject * that sight alone is unable to grasp.
What has your experience been like in the Applied Creativity course “ doctorate ”?
Sharing space, discussions, and seminars with students from completely different disciplines and with diverse interests forces us to question the established norms of architecture. This exchange of perspectives enriches critical thinking and allows us to approach creative and methodological problems from much broader angles.
Would you consider adding this link— research —to classroom?
Without a doubt; in fact, it is the main goal of this research. In the classroom of architectural projects, it is common to hear about light, textures, materials, or geometry, while sound is often the one thing missing—or, at best, it is addressed reactively as a discipline technical afterthought.
How does it fit into the architecture of the senses?
If we teach students to listen to space from the very first stroke on paper, we will be training architects capable of breaking free from the tyranny of the image to reconcile the “ project ” with the flesh-and-blood inhabitant, restoring to the environment its material richness, its pause, and its poetic care.
