From Bentham to Guadet: ‘Auditory Visibility’ in Nineteenth-Century Theories on Government Offices
Journal: International Journal for History Culture and Modernity
Year: 2019

Architectural historiography is seldom concerned with the antithetical notions of ‘noise’ and ‘silence’. In this case study, I tentatively explore the theme in the context of nineteenth-century administrative buildings. More particularly, I investigate the normative views of British and French authors concerning acoustic perception in one subtype of ‘bureaucratic’ architecture: the ministerial office building. Drawing examples from the work of, among others, ‘panopticon’ theorist Jeremy Bentham