One man's search for silence

Two interesting articles written by George Michelsen Foy relating to his book Zero Decibels about his year long search for silence:

https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=127294078

And on why we need silence to survive:

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/shut-and-listen/201003/why-we-need-silence-survive

Foy's quest corresponds with many of the concerns and findings of our own project. In particular that we tend to find quieter places away from centres of concentrated human activity.

There is an economic case for noise as Foy describes in this article, there isn't money to be made from the wild. Nature and wilderness still hold some of the quiet spaces on this planet. But as we are seeing in our own city, the small patches of green space (not even wildernesses - in the city centre they are long gone) are dissappearing under continual construction.

This returns us to the question of whether we want centres of commerce and ecconomic growth or whether we want habitats that promote well-being and healthy functioning communities. I am reminded of Lucy Saunders indicators of Healthy Streets and the fantastic edition (142) of Urban Design Spring 2017 focusing on Health.