the softness of the office numbed him , no sound intruded to shake him from his torpor , neither from the streets outside nor from the five floors of art school which towered above ; the steel and concrete block was packed with workshops and studios , there would be students hammering and chipping and blasting , nailing wood to wood or slapping wedges of clay into shape , attacking stone with chisels or scorching metal with welding torches , but not a sound crept into the padded cell of his office .