Spaces Speak, Are You Listening?: Experiencing Aural Architecture

Outstanding Academic Title, 2007.
-- Choice

"Blesser and Salter have thoughtfully synthesized a wide range of technical, aesthetic, and humanistic considerations of aural architecture to create a valuable interdisciplinary resource for anyone interested in thinking about sound, space, and society."
--Emily Thompson, Professor of History, Princeton University, and author of The Soundscape of Modernity: Architectural Acoustics and the Culture of Listening in America, 1900-1933

"This wide-ranging, articulate, and probing investigation of how humans listen helps us to appreciate the value of natural and constructed acoustics. It also shows that our sense of the space of sound has largely been lost in the vast library of recorded music. This book will change how you listen. Well done!"
--Floyd Toole, Vice President of Acoustical Engineering, Harman International Industries

"The authors present a groundbreaking synthesis of auditory spatial awareness as it has developed from cave acoustics through the modern concert hall to digital simulations of virtual spaces. Drawing on numerous disciplines, they summarize the scientific and cultural knowledge of the subtleties of acoustic spaces in a clear and readable manner, while challenging our social values about the optimal design of those spaces. A must-read for every student of architecture and aural culture."
--Barry Truax, Professor and Composer, Simon Fraser University

"At last, a book that reveals that spaces are meaningful beyond their acoustics! I was captivated by this impressively well-documented book, and recommend it to anyone with an interest in acoustics or architecture."
--Jean-Dominique Polack, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris

"This book is a serious overview of aural architecture and its growing importance in our world. Its comprehensive range--from historical essay to technical and social aspects of the field--makes it an important addition to the existing literature on this subject."
--Karen Van Lengen, Dean and Edward E. Elson Professor, School of Architecture, University of Virginia