“To be quiet is not to be silent,” writes William Smalley in his new book. “Quiet spaces are not empty. Emptiness can be oppressive.”
The architect describes the living room in his London flat: there’s a Georgian table that belonged to his grandfather, a piano that’s a year older than he is, an oarlock of a Venetian gondola. The room itself is a hodgepodge, built in the 18th century, refronted in the 19th century, with panelling that he stripped and painted white a decade ago.