Sounding Chinatown

Stadtmusik (Dietmar Offenhuber and Sam Auinger), in cooperation with the Goethe-Institut Boston, propose an intensive workshop exploring how listening can become a tool for urban design and planning. Based on the Stadtmusik Method and the concept of Thinking with Your Ears, participants will investigate the auditory qualities, atmospheres, rhythms, and acoustic identities of Chinatown and the area affected by the proposed I-90 reconnection project.

The workshop will bring together 12–20 participants, including members of Boston's planning community, public officials, designers, researchers, students, and anyone interested in exploring urban environments through sound. Using the Goethe-Institut as a working base, the group will conduct site visits, listening exercises, mapping sessions, and design experiments in the field.

The goal is to open a new perspective on urban transformation—one that recognizes listening as a critical tool for understanding place and generating design insights. By integrating auditory experience into discussions about the future of Chinatown, the workshop aims to enrich and nuance discourse on urban quality, public space, and civic life. The workshop seeks to explore how auditory knowledge and lived sonic experience can inform the ongoing Reconnecting Chinatown planning process and contribute perspectives that are often overlooked in conventional urban design methodologies.