Silence in Architectural Education

This chapter examines the role of silence in design studio teaching as a multiple that assumes more attributes than the mere absence of sound through a series of experimental teaching activities that have taken place as a result of the collaboration between the Urban Emptiness International Network and the School of Architecture of the National Technical University of Athens. It aims to experiment with how silence and listening regulate both human rapports and the production of meaning creatively, allowing time and space for introspection, reflection, communication and reciprocal exchange. The chapter discusses responsiveness as a means of being with others. It also examines some cases in which the project was not approached as a list of uses, materials and diagrammatic realizations. The chapter presents exercises that were part of an experimental approach that aimed to challenge the students’ listening skills.