SILENT ROOM V.01 — Nathalie Harb

NATHALIE HARB

SILENT ROOM V.01

Year 2017
Beirut Design Week

In collaboration with BUF Architecture, Khaled Yassine, 21dB Acoustic Consultants, and Squad Design Construction, The Silent Room is conceived as a space of absence within the contemporary city. Designed to coexist with the familiar elements of the 21st-century metropolis—shops, street markets, office buildings, transport hubs, and traffic—it offers a stark contrast to the constant stimulation of urban life.

The Silent Room radically reduces the overwhelming influx of information typical of modern cities. It allows you to see, hear, and feel in an environment muted of visual and sonic disturbances. Upon entering, the city’s visual cacophony fades into subdued lighting and a fabric-upholstered interior. External noise is softened, replaced by a subtle recording capturing the city at its quietest moments.

Aimed at addressing sonic inequity in urban landscapes, The Silent Room provides the rare luxury of silence, accessible to all.

The first installation, Silent Room 1, was introduced in Beirut in May 2017 during Beirut Design Week. Positioned in a parking lot adjacent to low-income neighborhoods, a motorway, and an industrial area, it offered a moment of stillness amid urban intensity. In 2018, it was reinstalled on Rue Jeanne d’Arc, on the site of a recently demolished residential building, once again inviting the city’s inhabitants to experience an oasis of calm.

Silent Room V0.2

The Resonant Shell

Design: Nathalie Harb & BUF architecture

Architecture: BUF architecture

Sound Conception and Composition: Khaled Yassine

Acoustic Consultant : 21dB

Construction: Wood Factory

Visual Identity: Joseph Kai

Photography: Nadim Asfar and Raintree

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