Situated at Ratcliffe-on-Soar, a decommissioned industrial site in the East Midlands, this thesis proposes an architectural response that breathes cultural and social vitality back into the landscape. Once dominated by the fading rhythms of energy production, the site is re imagined as a place of resonance, where the sounds of human creativity, learning, and connection take center stage.

This thesis explores architecture through the lens of auditory experience, resisting the long-standing Western prioritisation of the visual sense. Drawing from Juhani Pallasmaa’s phenomenological critique in The Eyes of the Skin, the project challenges the sight-based tradition that dominates architectural discourse and practice. Instead, it proposes an architecture of listening. A building designed not to be seen first, but to be heard and felt through sound.

At its core is a concert hall, which serves as both the physical and conceptual heart of the building. Every spatial decision is guided by the pursuit of exceptional acoustics to create an environment where sound defines form, material, and atmosphere. The building becomes an auditory journey, carefully calibrated to enhance the acoustic character of each space from intimate whispers to orchestral performances.

Beyond performance, the building is a civic platform: a space for learning, dialogue, and shared experience. Sound is fundamentally democratic: it transcends age, race, and socio-economic background. In contrast to the visual, which can be tied to judgment, aesthetics, and exclusion, sound offers an inclusive medium that connects us in our rawest human form. By emphasizing the auditory, the thesis advocates for an architecture that listens and in doing so, creates space for empathy, presence, and communal resonance.

This project reimagines architecture as a multi-sensory, egalitarian field, where sound is not an afterthought, but the basis of spatial experience.