Arqura

Stillness in Concrete: Tadao Ando’s Church of Light

Few buildings have been more widely referenced in discussions of silence in architecture than Tadao Ando’s Church of Light in Ibaraki, Japan. Yet what makes the space truly still is not its form alone, but its restraint. The quiet logic of subtraction over addition. Completed in 1989, the church

Designing Stillness: Lessons from Hans van der Laan’s Instruments of Thought

In a world saturated with noise, both physical and cognitive, spaces of stillness are becoming essential sanctuaries for the modern mind. But what makes an environment truly still? How can architecture guide perception toward a state of rest rather than stimulation? These questions find resonance in the work of Dutch

Chapel Of Silence By Associates Architecture

Located on the top of a valley in a little town in the province of Brescia, Italy, architect’s firm Associates Architecture has constructed a secular chapel in the woodlands of Botticino.  Named  ‘Chapel of Silence’, this six meters long, six meters high and three meters wide construction is situated

Odilon Redon’s The Art of Silence

In these noisy times, it is hard to find oases of silence. Psychotherapist Gunilla Norris observes: “Silence is something like an endangered species.” In places of quiet, we can meditate and wait for messages from Spirit. “My drawings inspire, and are not defined. They place us, as does music, on

Quiet Rooms in a Loud World

Silence has become rare. Not by accident, but by design. Our cities, buildings, and homes have been shaped around productivity and interaction, not pause. In a culture saturated with sound and visual noise, the absence of both is often read as absence of value. And yet, the desire for silence

Against Noise: Silence as Spatial Critique

Modern environments are designed for performance. Airports, offices, shopping centres, even homes are programmed for output. Noise is not just tolerated but expected. It signals life, efficiency, progress. In this context, silence is treated as failure. A space that does not speak, entertain or produce is viewed with suspicion. Yet