Shortly after the pandemic started in 2020, the New York Public Library its archive of ’lost’ sounds of the city, featuring the everyday sounds - footsteps, horns of cars, people chatting - that suddenly disappeared together with the people on the street due to the lockdown..It was a reminder that the sounds are important elements that consist of the life of cities, even when we usually don’t pay enough attention that it deserves.

With the sound and musical environment that surround us, our bodies, including visual information, physical sensations, and the state of our bodies and minds, act as a metronome, guiding us to the “rhythm” of a city. What could we learn about our cities through observing how cities sound? How does the sonic environment affect the way we live? How can we actively design a sonic environment in cities for better quality of life?

This campaign invites project ideas that explore the sounds and rhythms of the city, building on an interest in links between music, cities and architecture. , Our mission here is to re-compose existing urban paradigms and structures incorporating techniques, concepts, and values from sonic practices, by co-imagining what our cities could be through the alternative soundscape.