Architectural Semiotics Research Articles

Architectural semiotics in the renovation of rural architecture

AbstractThis study combines theoretical research and practical case studies to explore effective methods for renovating rural architecture within the context of Chinese new rural construction. By analyzing the current state of existing rural architectures, identifying their characteristics and shortcomings, and applying the theory of architectural semiotics, this study proposes an innovative model for rural architecture renovation. The aim of this research is to provide valuable insights and optimization strategies for the revitalization of rural architectures in China, ultimately contributing to the sustainable development of rural areas and the preservation of regional culture.

Architectural Semiotics: Reading Symbolic Meanings in Modern Building Design

Semiotics, as the study of signs and meaning, is a theoretical basis for analyzing the symbolic meanings hidden in architectural elements. This research aims to explore the meaning of symbols contained in modern building design through an architectural semiotic approach. In this research, a qualitative approach was used with descriptive methods. The results of research in architectural semiotics reveal that modern building design can be understood as a symbolic language that carries deep meaning. Through analysis of design elements, such as geometric shapes, innovative materials, and use of space, this research identifies symbols that communicate certain values, aesthetics, and concepts. Involvement of the user's cultural, social context, and subject experience helps refine symbolic interpretation, creating a more contextual and relevant understanding. Overall, architectural semiotics research contributes to constructing a systematic and in-depth picture of symbolic language in modern building design, opening a window for a broader understanding of the complex role of design elements in imbuing the meaning of contemporary architecture.

Semiotics in architecture of public spaces: contemporary city-centers; case of Bangalore, India

This paper investigates the public space architecture in urban centers of contemporary cities. Through time cities evolve with a certain traditional profile either spontaneous or planned; correspondingly, urban spaces emerge responding to the current developments, community aspirations, and architectural influences of the era. The study adopts a research methodology of triangulation involving review of theoretical derivatives, legislations for urban aesthetics, and conducting visual surveys of urbanscapes. Three fundamental theories are explored-‘Semiotics/Semiology’ by Saussure (1916) and Peirce (1902), ‘Duck and decorated shed’ by Robert Venturi (1972) and ‘Urban semiotics’ by Kevin Lynch (1960). The premise is investigated with the case of Bangalore (also, Bengaluru) in India; a city which has a rich historical profile while also being one of the progressive cities, resulting in transitions in its urbanscapes profile and existence of two distinct city cores, old and the new. This analysis is ensued by adopting comparative analysis of façades investigated in these two Central Business Districts, with a ‘Façade grid’ assessment methodology leading to interpretation of varying semiotics in both scenarios. The surveys conducted reveal an interesting semiology in the older and newer nodes reflecting intense objectives of commercial architecture and leads to formulation of a strategic proposal framework for façade architecture and management to reconnect to the use-experiential factors in urban centers.

Experiencing cinematic architecture: the impact of architecture on the audience emotional engagement

PurposeThe goal of the study is to underline “Cinematic Architecture” as another source of architectural thinking and research. This study is also a response to the shortage in empirical research on architecture in the cinema. Moreover, the study introduces the architectural components that qualify the cinematic spaces to be influential cinematic experience. This is in addition to investigating the impact of these components on the viewers' cognitive and emotional experience of films.Design/methodology/approachIn the reported study, an empirical experiment examined scenes from three different movies as experienced by a selected group of audience of movies fans (architects and laypersons). The audience was asked to report feelings the audience had about each scene using a questionnaire that was designed for this purpose, and the audience was asked to write down the aspects that affected the audience's emotions. The experiment evaluated selected emotional states and could specify the architectural features and/or objects that significantly contributed in inducing these emotions.FindingsThis study's findings concluded that emotions, which exist in the positive margin of the emotions “circumplex model,” were influenced by architectural components that were different from those that influenced emotions which lie in the negative margin of the model.Research limitations/implicationsAs for filmmakers, the study contributes in developing filmmakers' knowledge about the role of architecture in scenic creation and thus how that knowledge enhances filmmakers' film narrative and the narrative's spatial imagery. As for academia, this study contributes in developing the knowledge about film cognition as related to architectural semiotics. In the context of behavioral approach to architectural design, a behavior setting which is the basic element in environmental design can be dramatized by applying a cinematic narrative to a human activity system within a milieu of architectural design elements.Practical implicationsThis study is important for architects, as the study provides architects with an alternative tool for fictional experience and for testing architectural ideas through cinematic architecture. This study also helps in developing new venues for the practice of architecture into the world of fiction. This study also contributes in developing the trend that architectural design thinking can learn from cinematic thinking and practice.Originality/valueThis study introduces an empirical approach to evaluate architectural entities as part of cinematic experience. This study also comes as a response to the shortage in empirical research on architecture in the cinema.

Ornamen Rumah Adat Aceh Utara dalam Terminologi Arsitektur

Along with the times, Indonesian culture is starting to be neglected by various groups, especially the millennial generation. This can be seen in the erosion of culture in a region, especially in the values and meanings contained in carvings on the ornaments of traditional houses of north aceh, so that preservation is needed to inhibit the acceleration of the rate of shift in the value of modern society's life. Cultural preservation is also a process of preserving, maintaining and preserving culture so that the cultural meanings contained in it are maintained properly so as not to eliminate the original character of the culture itself. This study aims to reveal the existence of carvings on ornaments, their general meaning and meaning in architectural semiotics on carvings of traditional houses of Aceh Utara. The data analysis technique used in this research is architectural semiotics which was developed by Charles Jencks, namely signifier-signified which describes the interpretation of meaning, langue-parole which describes universal and individual linguistic meanings and syntagmatic-paradigmatic to analyze the relationship between language rules and rules in grammatical units in the form of carvings on the ornaments. The results and discussion found from this study are the traditional house of North Aceh using the Aceh Besar decorative motif as the basis for its later ornamental carvings which have gone through developments and modifications based on local cultural considerations. Besides that, North Aceh has the bungong mata uroe motif as the original motif from the region. Decorative motifs on ornamental carvings tell about the way of life, the philosophy of life, culture, mores and religion.

Innovative Application of Traditional Chinese Cultural Symbols in Contemporary Architecture

Traditional Chinese culture, with its distinctive nationality and regionalism, is a valuable source of creative elements for Chinese architecture, and also an effective weapon to cope with the impact of “internationalization” and “standardization”. In this paper, traditional cultural elements are symbolically categorized, dissected and innovated through architectural semiotics to explore the characteristics and application significance of traditional cultural symbols in contemporary architectural design. Moreover, case studies are conducted to derive the correct expression of traditional Chinese culture in contemporary architectural design, with a view to finding out a universal path for applying traditional cultural symbols in architecture.

Architectural language of the Southern Fujianese traditional Chinese temple timber frame structure in West Malaysia: a cultural semiotics analysis

PurposeThis paper examines the relationship between traditional timber frame structure and the diasporic identity of the Southern Fujianese Chinese community in West Malaysia. It analyses the cultural semiotics of Southern Fujianese traditional Chinese temple timber frame structure architectural language. This study addresses the under-examined domain of Chinese cultural identity representation through the architecture of traditional Chinese temples in Malaysia. It seeks to understand its underlying structure and process involved in revealing its disposition within the cultural phenomena from the perspective of Chinese cultural semiotics.Design/methodology/approachSelected Southern Fujianese traditional Chinese temples in West Malaysia built between the 18th to the 19th century that retain the traditional timber frame structure were investigated through field survey and focused publication review. Historical interpretive analysis and typological analysis supplement the cultural semiotics analysis to assess the timber frame structure attributes concerning architectural language expressions.FindingsFindings reveal that the architectural language signifiers of the structural disposition of the timber framework and its corresponding formal articulation establish a clear statement of the Southern Fujian Chinese cultural identity.Originality/valueThe evaluation of the cultural identity signifiers helps to understand the underlying structure and process of the Chinese cultural semiotics in architecture. Results of this research substantiate the significance of timber frame structure in preserving the architectural heritage of the Southern Fujianese traditional Chinese temples. They provide important references for conservation and cultural studies of such building typology.

Феноменологические подходы в теории архитектуры в контексте современных когнитивных наук

The article is a fragment of the scientific research devoted to the analysis of mod­ern approaches to the understanding of architecture. It considers the problems of phenomenological approach to architecture. Applied to architectural issues, the phenomenological approach can be considered as very productive and promising, but only as it appears to be practiced by K. Norberg-Schulz and J. Pallasmaa. The article notes the fundamental unity of views, which is demonstrated by repre­sentatives of the phenomenological approach, despite the individual speci­ficity of the each representative’s position. Probably, the integrity and depth of the phe­nomenological concept (in its “primordial form”) is consonant with the comp­rehensiveness of each individual act of perception. The author also draws atten­tion to the significant circumstance, that the phenomenological approach is in fundamentally irreconcilable contradiction (conceptual and methodological) to the numerous attempts by “architectural semiotics and structuralists” to explain the whole by breaking it up into “semantic fragments”. He analyzes the corre­lation between the position of representatives of the phenomenological approach to architecture and scientific views in the sphere of modern psychology and ana­lytical philosophy. The article notes the basic similarity of the phenomeno­logical concept with M. Polanyi’s theory of “tacit knowledge”, in which those kinds of knowledge (and also practical skills) are considered and which cannot be formal­ized (partially or completely) for the purpose of transferring to others. The author also offers for consideration the introduction of concept of “pheno­menology of semi-instinctive behavior in its dynamic formation”.

The symbolic usage of stone beyond its function as a construction material: Example of residential architecture in Iraqi Kurdistan

Abstract This study examines the symbolic use of stone beyond its basic function as a construction material in architecture. It investigates the meaning of stone using Iraqi Kurdistan residential architecture as a case study. The theoretical framework of the study is developed through the content analysis method, by applying Hershberger’s basic model of meaning, and by exploring Krampen’s writings on semiotics in architecture. The relevant theoretical framework was tested through systematic physical observation of selected houses in Iraqi Kurdistan and by using the inductive reasoning method. The study recognises that stone, beyond being a construction material, conveys the symbolic meaning of “power,” “wealth,” and “belonging” in contemporary houses of Iraqi Kurdistan. Based on that, a meaningful situation model was created to evaluate the phenomenon. The model can also be useful in analysing similar cases and research situations.

Analysis on the Application of Architectural Semiotics in Design

In the field of architecture, more and more “symbols” have been introduced into architectural design, enriching the connotation and methods in architectural design, and adding a lot of vitality to architectural design methods. Based on the emergence, development and characteristics of architectural semiotics, this article analyzes the application of architectural semiotics in architectural design in combination with specific practical cases, and discusses the development and significance of semiotics in architectural design.

Urbs and Civitas: Stone Order and Civil Order Collapsing in Some Cinematographic Examples

The assimilation of the architectural sign to the linguistic one, is the way that allow us to analyze the architectural element of the city, according to the symbolic and conventional way, but giving to the architectural sign an iconic value that we could read through reconstruction of city in films. It is possible if we consider city as artwork seen according to the definition of Lynch. There is a temporal and special dimension, the urban dimension, which would otherwise not be ‘visible’ to the naked eye or perceivable with hearing. City as an artwork can be read for more reasons, through the cinema in the translation of an architectural semiotics that finds a double correspondence of Urbs and Civitas, in the real building of the city and in its re-construction. In this contest, some Italian movies of Rossellini, De Sica, Antonioni, for example, beyond the traditional interpretations, can give us indications about the moments and ‘points’ of collapse that we can find in ‘signs’ and ‘singular points’. It’s in these points that we found the signs of evolution, breakdown and collapse of relationship between Urbs and Civitas.

The Language of Lighting: Applying Semiotics in the Evaluation of Lighting Design

ABSTRACT Architectural lighting provides optimum visibility for tasks but illuminations convey meanings as well. Though many studies analyze technical dimensions of lighting, research on the meaning is rare. Therefore, this article discusses semiotics as a methodology for lighting design within the design process and critically reflects the appearance of light and architecture. The semiotic discourse starts with terminology and presents models of architectural signs. The history of architectural semiotics serves as a background for the transfer to lighting and leads to an understanding of recent debates. The relevance of semiotics for lighting design is shown in three aspects: Firstly, the influence on the lighting design process; secondly, how physical characteristics of light intensity, distribution, and spectrum are interpreted as signs; and, thirdly, the evaluation of different lighting design tasks like daylight, lamp and luminaire design, interior and exterior lighting, as well as media façades. A critique of architectural and lighting semiotics reveals the methodological limitations of the linguistic concept. It can be concluded that semiotics provides a useful instrument to identify the meaning, which helps to improve the quality of lighting design. The semiotic matrix offers a differentiated view of relationships based on the aspects of sign, object, and interpretant with relation to light characteristics, illuminated buildings, and architectural lighting in general.

Walk-Through Corporate Aesthetics: Design Affordances in Tech Workspaces

Abstract The article at hand analyses the aesthetic dimension of contemporary “tech companies,” particularly how their characteristic rhetoric of creativity, collaboration and disruption is built into the aesthetics of the physical work environments. For that purpose, proceduralist reading and environmental storytelling, usually applied to analyse meaning-making in digital game spaces, are adapted to conduct a comparative spatial affordance analysis on material from Officesnapshots, one of the largest online repositories for workspace documentation. Expanding upon earlier definitions of spatial affordances as quasi-textual features, the article defines the design elements of tech offices as a continuation of verbal and (audio-)visual corporate rhetoric employed by companies like Google, Facebook or Etsy. It thereby contributes a material-semiotic dimension to current debates about the epistemic implications of these software platforms, which José van Dijck summarises using the term “platform society.” Besides game and play studies, elements of architectural semiotics and cultural analyses of support spaces (e.g. Kracauer 1999 and Moran 2005) as well as broader concepts such as the politics of theming (Freitag 2017) or the embedding of digital technologies into physical spaces (Kitchin and Dodge 2011) complement the theoretical framework.

Architecture as Meaningful Language: Space, Place and Narrativity

A semiotics of architecture should focus on the process of the production of meaning through the articulation and organisation of space (and time). This articulation has, at least, a mental side (conception) and a material side (realisation). However, it would be misleading to try to reduce this double articulation into a formal logic alone (Pierce). Proxemics has convincingly demonstrated that spatial forms are part of social life and that their meaning depends on (and refer to) cultural values. We should study and think of the semiotics of space in the broader context of a semiotics of culture, insofar as its system of signs aims at the production of cultural meaning that is part of a code of social hierarchies and distinctions. In this paper, I propose a preliminary intersection between semiotics, literary theory and modal narratology. To decipher the social values that are inherent in spatial forms we need not only a general theory of their interpretation but also a theory of their manner of telling, their narrative structure, their plot, and how this plot is anchored and activated into specific and determinate social chronotopes. A possible strategy that would allow for the above intersection to take place could be a broad conception of the notion of 'text' that includes 'space' as a narrative process and as a discourse that follows a specific 'narrative grammar'. Therefore, architectural semiotics should lay emphasis on the process of the conception, design and production of spatial meaning as if this process was the writing of a social text, a codification of a narrative in space. In this paper, I will focus on a fragment of this project, examining some of the semiotic correlations and conceptual conjunctions between literature and architecture.

The Spatial Signification of Shanghai Shikumen Longtang

Abstract In this paper I claim that the spatial structural system of Shanghai Shikumen Longtang constitutes a sign system based on its architectural semiotics. The paper focuses on the structure of the architectural space, including the interactive relationship between the architectural spatial structure and its residents. The research agenda undertakes a theoretical study of modern architectural semiotics by means of syntactic and semantic analyses of the spatial structure of Shanghai Shikumen Longtang, including as well an analysis of the pragmatics of meaning in production and reproduction in Shanghai Shikumen Longtang. The application of spatial language grammar in the analysis reveals the meaning of the sign system of the architectural spatial structure and pragmatic communication of Shanghai Shikumen Longtang, decodes the profound and intricate signification in the spatial system of Shanghai Shikumen Longtang and suggests a deeper and broader view for recognizing the underlying meaning system of the Longtang in the urban space of modern Shanghai City.

Historical development of administration architecture in Malaysia (15th-21st century)

The main purpose of this paper is to document the development of the state administration building in Malaysia before and after the independence era, in relation to the evolutionary period of Malaysia's political, social and economic history. Multiple case study approach [19] is applied by referring to six prominent case studies to represent state administrative buildings from various phases of Malaysian history beginning from 14th century to 21st century as exemplar. Since this paper formulates new ways to approach and describes state administrative building design and factors that influence them, it uses interpretivism paradigm and (semiotics) as methodological approach to study the relationship between the building design and contextual elements. This paper, therefore, offers new insights, which not only add to knowledge in this field by widening and strengthening the understanding of state administrative architecture in Malaysia, but also are valuable for range of associated fields including architectural semiotics and non verbal communication. This is because this paper reveals deep understandings of the built form and material environment operating as a sign in a cultural and social context.

Argentine

Introduction In Argentina there is a sustained activity related to semiotics since the sixties, when Luis J. Prieto was pioneering semiotic studies at the University of Cordoba, before going into exile in Europe, where he took on the chair of Linguistics that once belonged to Saussure in Geneva. There were some other scholars already carrying out activities in semiotic fields at that time; among them, Cesar Jannello, who inaugurated in 1969 the first chair of Semiotics of Architecture at the ...

The Recombination of Time and Space, Architecture, Visual Image and Formal Language - Practice of Accessories Manipulation of “Collage” in Indoorspace Environment Design

Based on the theories of architectural typology, formal language of interior design, architectural semiotics and design aesthetics, this article, with social survey, illustrates the development overview and prospects of “collage” design technique in space environment through large amounts of data and study and deeply demonstrates the creativity and innovation of accessories approach of “Collage” in space environment.

The Recombination of Time and Space, Architecture, Visual Image and Formal Language - Practice of Accessories Manipulation of “Collage” in Indoorspace Environment Design

Based on the theories of architectural typology, formal language of interior design, architectural semiotics and design aesthetics, this article, with social survey, illustrates the development overview and prospects of “collage” design technique in space environment through large amounts of data and study and deeply demonstrates the creativity and innovation of accessories approach of “Collage” in space environment.

Semiotics of making: beginnings of a theoretical frame

The contemporary problem of semiotics in architecture is an inherited struggle, not a chosen one. We consider the question of architectural communication because we inevitably recognize its centrality to the problem ofarchitecture itself. While the twentieth-century impact of Saussure and his birthing of structuralism gave architecture a new ground from which to reconceive its own semiotic functions, it was probably never possible that such a synchronic and undialogic theory would suit such a disparate and intersubjective activity. This is not to say that semiotics offers no guidance for the problem of architecture. It may say, however, that to use semiotics productively is not to start from its constructs but instead from architecture's own.To that end, this study intends to establish a conceptualbasis for communication and meaning in architectural form by an inquiry into making. The initial judgment about why making might prove to be more useful than otherarchitectural characteristics is due to is its essential dialogicnature; it already is a semiotic. In that sense what follows is an opportunistic examination. It arises from what should be considered a powerful”if somewhat neglected”text on making: Elaine Scarry's 1985 The Body in Pain. A deeper consideration of this work is long overdue. While Scarry'sbook seems to enjoy a rather wide readership, its potential impact has been largely unrealized since few scholars have developed its implications. Given the extraordinary originality of its argument, the artful construction of its prose, and the complex sophistication of its logic, it offers a rich”albeit demanding”place from which to begin.The objective of this study is to schematize Scarry's theory of making such that connections to a semiotic understanding of its potentials may be realized. Following this effort, a short examination of one particular semiotic aspect of making will be argued as a tentative ground from which to guide further investigation.