Visual Images and Language in Architecture: Signifier Semiotics and Meaning Semiotics (original) (raw)
Related papers
SEMIOTICS OF ARCHITECTURAL GRAPHICS
As an initial convention it should be noted that PhD thesis was pioneer and fundamental in its scientific area. Thus, there was a significant expansion of studied fields (as to extract the essentials from any close topic), but a reduced concentration on different aspects and stages. In order that the thesis stays adhered to architectural field, specific terminologies of semiotics and technology were strictly avoided. The terms in the aspect they had been applied in the work, were shown in the annexes.
As a sign system, architecture could be analyzed the way we examine a work of literature. While group of words arranged syntagmatic could establish an integrated meaning, elements in a building are systematically configured to form a meaningful work of architecture. Analogous to words, those architectural elements are symbols representing meaning which serves as a foundation for an architectural object. Therefore, as a system of signs, architecture serves as a medium which communicates relevant and contextual meaning. Occasionally, architects overlook meaning which lives among the cultural context of the society, or even worse, they neglect the meaning possessed by signs built in an architectural work. More or less, buildings subsequently turn into meaningless signs. With the semiology approach of Saussure and Jencks, we could decipher the formation of meaning possessed by architectural objects from various standpoints, both denotative and connotative, and through the lens of architect and user. Thus, we may understand architectural work as a whole, even to its most fundamental meaning.
Dragana Vasilski Semiotics and Aesthetics as a discourse on Architecture
Proceedings of the 14th World Congress of the International Association for Semiotic Studies (IASS/AIS) Buenos Aires, 9 al 13 de septiembre de 2019. Tomo 6, ISSN 2414-6862, e-ISBN de la obra completa: 978-987-47805-0-8, e-ISBN del Tomo 6: 978-987-47805-5-3, 2021
ABSTRACT If asked to define in a word or two the essential difference between a semiotic and an aesthetic view of an architectural object, we might say that the first takes the (architectural) object as a sign of something else while the second takes it as pleasurable in itself. In the first case, we note just enough about it to distinguish it from other signs in the same code and think only of the quantitative significance its position in that code has discussions on. In the second case, we ignore the meaning and look only at the features that compose it, the shape, colour, texture, and so on, with a viewpoint to take delight or pleasure in what we see. The perception which is respectively the object of analysis of each, should not be interpreted to mean that the two disciplines may be resolved into one. Two main observations, apprehension of meaning and pleasure in the perception of form, keep them distinct, although they have many methods of analysis in common. One of the characteristics of contemporary architecture is minimalism. As there is no continuous stream of development manifesting its presence, minimalism (in architecture), this is probably the reason why the views of it are diametrically different. Challenged and criticized, minimalist architecture is presented as aesthetically cold and sterile creating of an inhuman environment. But, according to many, minimalism (in architecture) is a step towards the realization of an authentic art of the sublime, and this makes it understandable as originally mostly evolved in the aesthetical areas. Today the search for meanings in architecture is based on the concept of dematerialization of contemporary architectural practice, which in the searching for spirituality and essence, expresses the idea of establishing a logical sequence from the conceptual to the semiotics. In this study, in a case of minimalism in architecture, our statement of aesthetic perception seems to be spread by the notion of semiotics. Therefore, it will be examining some of the interesting reformulations that occur when the semiotic field spills over into an area traditionally belonging to aesthetics.
ARCHITECTURAL SPACE AND GREIMASSIAN SEMIOTICS Introduction
Semiotics as a discipline has gained a recognition in many spheres. A.J. Greimas semiotic theory has proven to be suitable for analysing architectural works. Obviously, there is a need of theory regarding architectural space to be collected and compiled to lend a helping hand for a researcher. The article demonstrates how to undertake a close semiotic analysis of the architectural space. Semiotic 'tools' help to articulate the form of the expression of the architectural work with the form of the content to make a corresponding reading of the signifying object possible. The article gives a general overview of the semiotics of architecture and space and some of the issues that surface in it. Moreover, it clarifies how signification comes in architecture, spells this out in more detail and confronts us with disoursive syntax and semantics.
MORPHOGENESIS of SPACE -A READING of SEMIOTICS in ARCHITECTURE
The aim of this paper is to investigate the notion of architectural design as a tool for communication throughout a discussion on its emergent form. Herewith concerned with the explanation of the signified in the signifier theoretically, there are questions explored in this paper: Can the signifier relate to its spectators/users and environment? How does a spatial design process, the context -if there is any- and function, i.e. the text represented in the structure practically? Can the semiotic morphology mediate for the aesthetic and communicative experiences? Thus this work focuses on critical case studies to find some answers. Accordingly, in the light of philosophers Derrida, Deleuze, Guattari and Delanda, a cross-examination of a wide range of architect-critics (Jencks, Tschumi, Eisenman, Prix, Koolhaas, etc.) from different perspectives is made here. To acquire a clarified investigation about the history of post-modern morphogenesis in relations to semiotics; modern, structualist, poststructualist and deconstructionist approaches are enrolled in the first chapter. The second chapter focuses on the morphology animated by designers’ underlying theories. Previous and contemporary approaches of so called Deconstructivists are brought into the discussion to mark some transitions and oppositions in about fifty years. Several rigorous debates on some cases are quoted to see both the designers’ and the critics’ sides. To conclude, space turned into a place –the morphogenesis process is to be interpreted. This work intends to open up new criticisms on the relations of architectural theory and practice.
visual communication and spatial semiotics
Architecture is in itself a form of visual communication. Architecture like other communication media transmits messages through the skillful arrangement of building and construction elements such as; wall, window and floor types. Architecture in many ways is comparable to the linguist’s arrangement of words in a text and an artist’s paint on canvas. This paper focuses on the production of meaning from the architectural structures used in a social space – Gloria Jean’s Coffee Girne, Cyprus. The semiotic method of analysis was used to analyze the building’s components for the derivation of meaning. This study asserts that architectural elements such as wall paint and wall type are used as signs to transmit meanings to the public. Gloria Jean’s Coffee uses paint colour to convey symbolic and connotative meanings to match with the nature of its business.
Visual Semiology in Architectural Design
CTC 2021 PROCEEDINGS BOOK, 2021
Beyond being a shelter, houses are such structures which obtain meanings shaped by the influence of culture, particularly reflecting the society’s socio-cultural structure. As a time-khronos and space-topos pattern, the houses reflect the characteristics of the culture or ethnic group which they are part of, while on the other hand, they reflect the images of the individual's essence as a communicative action. The effect of climate and typology, which are physical components of culture, as well as social components of culture, such as value systems, belief, lifestyle and habits, are cardinal factors in the formation of traditional houses. In this respect, traditional structures are visual representation spaces that narrates their own story, like verbal culture, and they convey their unique codes through visuality. This study, which discusses traditional architecture as a cultural text, aims to reveal traditional Urfa houses through analytical readings, within the context of visu...
Material That Talks: Material Use of Architectural Surface in Semiotic Implications
2013
According to the language of post-modern architecture which Charles Jencks proposed in the 1980s, form has been very crucial for architectural language expression. However, many suggestions also imply that the material which is deployed for building is also significant in the linguistic expression of architecture. Based on this consideration, the material use of architecture will also contain semiotic implications, whether for architects or for social consensus. How the material talks and what it says are two questions that need to be clarified. To answer these two questions, some empirical works in architecture will be examined to reveal the messages which could be delivered in architectural materials. Before this, semiotic debates in architecture will be reviewed. Then, two empirical works, one in the West and one in the East, will be considered particularly for their material deployments on the surface (façade). Since the architectural surface is the most tangible part of archite...