The soundscape

Urban experiences between the visible and the invisible

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to propose an alternative view of the contemporary urban landscape, in order to show the limits of the current practice of city design, which only considers the negative acceptance of the sounds and noises perceived in the urban context. The discipline of the soundscape studies was born in the Seventies in Canada, although in the Sixties the MIT researchers had alreadyanticipated some reflections on the importance of auditory perception in the understanding of the city. These researches opened the doors to a new cognitive paradigm for studying the urban landscape, and make us understand how the acoustic stimuli represents a fundamental and independet cultural dimension of the landscape. The introduction of intangible assets in the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites is the proof of the fundamental importance of the soundscape as a cultural heritage.