Soundscape Architecture Explores Listening as a Social and Political Act

Soundscape Architecture, a new book co-authored by former UVA School of Architecture Dean Karen Van Lengen, explores how architecture and art can enhance listening as a social and political act. “When we listen, we begin the first act of engagement and communication with others,” writes Van Lengen. “Listening is also critical when we consider our local natural habitats, and it can remind us, in a particularly visceral way, of the fragility of our lived environments, increasingly stressed by climate change. We ask, therefore, how the act of intentional listening can prompt us to engage more fully in the world and with the people in it; and how architecture and urban design can encourage this type of engagement.”