I have a dream. I’m not the first and definitely not the most famous person who ever stated this, but I do, too.

It started about fifteen years ago, when I came across a vegetarian/vegan buffet restaurant in the historic centre of Antwerp, called Rosenobel. The place was a divine discovery, not only because of the variety in homemade vegetarian dishes, but most of all due to the fact they only play very soft music, at a low volume, and there is virtually no other sound pollution. A haven of peace and quiet for a highly sensitive person (HSP) and a mysophobe like me. I literally had tears in my eyes when I complimented the owner and told her what a blessing her little oasis was to me. She explained she opened the place out of sheer necessity: “I am so sensitive to sound and noise that I cannot enter most restaurants, cafe’s and bars,” she told me. “The only way for me to have a chance at a social life was to start a business myself, a place where I and people like me could come and enjoy a meal and a conversation without having to spend most of our energy on blocking out the noises that make us cringe, or want to run outside.”

I knew immediately what she was referring to, as I too am very sensitive to sounds (especially machines, like the high pitched noise of coffee bean grinders, the hissing of coffee machines, the heavy humming, almost roaring, sound of fridges, but also to the clattering noise of plates, cups and cutlery, and even some natural sounds like the screaming of babies, the yapping of small dogs, certain sharp voices…). I always thought it would improve with age as we tend to get a bit deaf, but it only seems to intensify as I grow older. Either that, or everyone else is getting more deaf with each passing year.

Being a bachelor for most of my life I also felt the need for a place to connect with people, to have meaningful conversations, play games, dance and interact in a way that was normal while we were all in school, but that seems to have gotten lost along the way while we were growing up. Real social interaction got replaced by getting drunk in bars, where the quality of conversations drops as their volume rises.

The seed was planted, the dream arose to one day opening a place like this myself, a worldwide chain even. Not a restaurant, but a social gathering place (without alcohol, to ensure the volume of conversations) where people could enjoy a conversation, a game or a little dance with friends or random strangers, or even read a book or charge their personal batteries by contemplating/meditating in a quiet corner. In this day and age silence is becoming a luxury product, especially for people living in a city, and it’s a product I would love to be able to provide to the ever growing amount of sound sensitive people out there. And there’s plenty of us out there apparently. Supermarket chain Carrefour distinguishes itself from other supermarkets by offering a silent hour: every day between 15-16h there is no music, no noise pollution, so people who are sensitive to sound can do their shopping without having to result to ear plugs (and even with ear plugs I’m usually out of the shop before having obtained every item on my list). After barely a year that one hour frame became a two hour frame, which proves there is a big need for silent moments, and that the amount of sound sensitive people and mysophobes keeps growing. There is even a mysophonia group on LinkedIn.

So far part one of my dream, part two is about another level of high sensitivity: radiation. The amount of people sensitive to radiation is also growing exponentially, especially since the introduction of 5G. In 2018 I followed a summit on the effects of 5G, listening to experts on biology, neurology and dermatology explaining how this technology will affect our overall health. Obviously HSP’s will be the first people who will become aware of the physical consequences, but it’s going to effect us all: we will see a substantial rise in insomnia cases, anxiety and depression, concentration difficulties, melanomes…

So I decided I wanted to combine both the need for a silent social haven with the need for a radiation free zone, and create a Faraday cage environment. The fact that it will be a cage of Faraday will also assure its sociable character, as people will not be able to focus on their phone due to the lack of wifi coverage; they will have to interact with each other.

Part three of my dream (I tend to dream big) is bringing people closer together, literally, by creating a dance floor with sloft music where couples and even total strangers can enjoy a bit of human warmth, dancing cheek to cheek. Therefor Slow&Soft will also be providing dance lessons in tango, salsa, paso doble and any kind of dance performed by two persons.

Furthermore I want to make a difference in the world and speed up the necessary changes by encouraging people to become more sustainable, so Slow&Soft will also offer people a place where they can get information on new sustainable inventions and even try them out before actually buying the items themselves, partnering up with the companies that produce them. This also means giving regular lectures and workshops, another way to raise awareness and promoting social interaction.