Sound and Architectural Space

Remains of the nineteenth-century aesthetic theory of ‘pure visibility’ (Reine Sichtbarkeit) survive in the contemporary study of architectural history, even if not explicitly evoked. Still today, scholars commonly assume that throughout history, buildings and cities were largely formed for visual aims. In turn, much of their study is based on purely visual analysis, to which ideological interpretations, based on anachronistic values, are often superimposed. As we know, an architectural or urban place is determined by extra-formal characteristics, such as the cosmic speculum highlighted by Andrews in his article, or the sanctions inflicted on violators of the rules of civitas described in De Raedt's text.

Yet, early modern architecture – as most architecture today – was built not only to be seen, but to be used, in accordance with contemporary needs. The buildings’ users had a much deeper experience of architectural space than the aestheticism of our historiography would allow. To borrow from the Latin, they were not just spectatores (viewers) but utentes (users), involved in their physical, built environment on an emotional, intellectual, and often also moral level. After all, even if only from the perceptual point of view, the use of a space is a multisensory experience that goes well beyond vision. It follows that architectural space cannot be solely measured in terms of the geometry of its constituent volumes. Rather, it is characterized by expressive values that go beyond the isotropy of pure geometry, and which in some cases deform space and even contradict it.