Lecture 8; A Plain Man's Guide to "The Icons – is a sign that refers to the object by

Theory of Sign" Virtue of certain Character of its own e.g.

maps, photographs, algebraic signs!
George Baird's writing about Theory of e.g. architectural drawings, model,
Signs in Architecture; Reyner Banhams, photograph & buildings – e.g. Le
criticized Baird: Carrying meaning to Corbusier’s Ronchamp crab-shell roof;
buildings is producing. Frank Lloyd Wright’s chapel at Madison;
analogy with painting in De stijl
Elitist Monumentality!
Architecture; Duck-shape poultry stand in
Belief is in functional Architecture is: Long island, referred to by Venturi – too
designed with machine-like precision around simple & direct–boring & “Metaphors” as
a brief realized three-dimensionally referred to by Charles Jencks, as anything of
according to the latest technology, this Mies, unlike Gaudi’s work (e.g. Casa Battlo)
attitude towards functionalism changed and , which carries rich variety of meanings on a
is taken over by assigning deliberate number of levels. E.g. Wright’s (Life House
meaning too Architecture through Architects – Rectangular geometry; Ralph Jester House
like: Venturi, Charles Moore, Brent Brolin, – Circular; Vigo Sundt House – Triangular.
Charles Jencks. Bonta, Jencks, Broadbent, &
Llorens wrote about the issue! Ferdinand de Saussure; Swiss Philosopher +
Charles Sanders Peirce; American, set Up
Peirce- Semiotic – A complex Approach general theory of signification. How a thing
Defined different classes of signs / reduced stands for & reminds us of another.
later in numbers Most important of which:
Icons, Indices, Symbols. Saussure–Semiology
Symbols; is a sign that refers to the object
Peirce–Semiotic (most preferred); more
by Virtue of law or association. ​e.g. badge,
complex.
railway tickets; church as a conventional
Defined different classes of Signs / reduced
social & religious.
later in numbers, most important of which:
Icons, Indices, Symbols)
Indices; ​is a sign or representation which
Semiotics (as a sign Itself) = Idiotic
refers to its object not because of any
similarity or analogy Nor because it is Terminology is Confusing, complex, some
associated with the general characters the glossaries reached 1800, others contained
object possess. 54000 with, but most seen irrelevant to
e.g. Le Corbusier’s Maison La Roche – architectural Practice, words based on
index in functioning ways go around the mechanisms of language, but are irrelevant
house. e.g. oil refineries; gas plants; nuclear of semiotics as a whole – Language made
power stations the Terminology Difficult!
It made little impact on the Continent Ragghianti–Italian theorist, first who
because of lack of Parallel translations. The explored semiology in Architecture.
nine basic Terms that one can work with are:
AN ARCHITECTURAL DEBATE
Pragmatic, Semantic, Syntactic, Signifier,
Interpretations
Signified, Referent. Icon. Index, & Symbol.
De Fusco & Scalvini ​– Equated Palladio
Maison La Roche, Paris, 1923:
Rotunda – Vicenza Exterior to signifier &
It is not a typical house, it is a prototype for: the interior to signified

● Free Plan Vs.

● Standardization
Umberto Eco​–Signifier / Staircase +
● Place for equipments
Signified / Act of walking up
● A place for industrial
● Metaphors (Machine) Ogden & Richards – any building at any
time can be signifier, signified or referent all
Such examples were magnificent examples
at the same time – E.g. Parthenon +
of the 1920's though they were not really
Acropolis
functional!
Bonto – Barcelona pavilion no longer exists
All buildings symbolize & carry meaning –
a physical thing, but as a sign of another
create association in mind, whether the
kind of architectural perfection
architect wanted or not, even International
Architecture, and functionalists dreamed of Two differentiations of language usage in
free-meaning & a machine-like relation to signification are:
Architecture, but did not happen!
Denotation – Meaning which a form has for
All carry meaning as much as Chartres all (Intrinsic).
Cathedral! – Even Pevsner.
Connotation – Shades of meaning (Based
But how do buildings carry meaning? on emotional or other factors) that a form
has for individual users.
This makes better understanding to
buildings, it also may help to design them in Umberto Eco – see there is no necessary
a better way! relationship between the signifier & the
significant – (the referent object), as it may
Through theory of Sign!
not exist! Imaginative object or thing!
(object, knowledge, perception, or thought)
–whether imaginative or not it should be
Buildings can be read as signs
same to mental process!
Semantics – deals with the signification of three meter walk-in mirror-lines glass cubes
signs in all modes of signifying, with the within the larger glass cube, and illuminated
ways in which they carry meaning. them in red, green, and blue. An experience
of inhabiting a pure spatial syntax.
Basic Concept of Saussure was anticipated
by Vitruvius E.g: March and Steadman
Describing architecture in syntactic terms;
In architecture there are two points formally
Geometry Environment.
united by social contract;
E.g: Hillier and Leaman
The thing ​signified (​Subject- concept of
Whose architecture can be explained in
reference​)
terms of the rules by which individual
+ spaces can be clustered together.

What gives its significance (Signifier- E.g: Mitchell and Ligget

scientific principles, material representation) Rules by which the whole spaces can be
divided up; based on mathematical
Relationship is ​Arbitrary but must be possibilities!
respected by all – it cannot be changed
socially. ​But No such social contract exists Syntactic rules are important for the analysis
to the meaning of architecture (A of underlying structures in architecture, but:
fundamental difference between It should be for its own sake, on the expense
Architecture & language) of semantics! It would be a negative
approach like functionalism!
Another approach by Hjelmslev- assumed a
four-part structure that splits the concept Eisenman and Aldo Rossi​; declared an aim
which links the signifier and ​referent to make an architecture of pure syntax with
allowing a process of encoding between no semantic content!
one's immediate thought about the object &
E.g: Sir Edwin Lutyens;
the way ones chooses to refer to it by means
“Armature of planes”; building made of
of words (​signifiers)!
solids and voids, geometrically relates to
Plane of content: visualise space, divided along three planes
Substance+form->Signified->Thought are horizontal and vertical, divided in all
(Referent) directions, a foundation of
three-dimensional relationships, thought of
Plane of expression: as invisible lines of cleavage, like a glass
Substance+form->Signifier->Symbol cube made only out of a glass cube!
(Referent)

E.g: Domingo Alvarez

Interpreted Lutyen’s “Glass Cube”; built
 Onions; All the relationships with the world
outside ourselves could be expressed in one
of the followings forms:

1. In the environment
2. Describe Characteristics
3. Physical effect on other things in
environment
4. Engages in transaction
5. Actions have emotional effect

Eisenmann used Chomsky approach to

describe his complex rules for the generation
and transformation of architectural forms

House II; cube of space, 9-grid (3*3)

compartments, grid realized by columns and
rows, parallel wall, diagonal division of the
cube within a wall system running towards it
In my investigation into house I, i have come from one side and a column system from the
across a few main desires for housing: ease other.
not ease, icon not icon, commodity not Then looked at the negative space left,
commodity, and appearance not process. gradually developing complex interlocking
This section of my investigation deals with space, dedicated to certain living activity.
all of these, but mostly with the fourth. Many
homes are bought or sold based on Concerned within the abstract perfection of
appearance, “I’m a millionaire, I can’t live his system; form determined, then functions.
in a trailer park!” or “that house is just
Eisenmann is the only architect who used
another McMansion, I want something
this complex system.
well-designed.” Taking the latter statement
to the extreme we come upon houses that are Outcomes of such studies cannot be built
in some ways unlivable but are designed to because we can not satisfy all people’s
the nines. Based on Dillion’s tastes! They only benefit the profession
recommendation i’ve focused on (semantic differentiations) to hsow the
Eisenmann’s variants to explore this issue degree of which there is agreement or
more. disagreement on fundamental issues of
concern to architecture; results can be used
as constructs for design in Academia!
How can Architecture be anbalaysised the effect those meanings have on those who
pragmatically; based on effects it will have interpret them.
on people?
Concerned with the structure of
Physiologists + Psychologists + Physicist sign-systems:
work together to cover reactions to
The ways which words are grouped together
buildings. Based on environmental control,
to form sentences, the syntactic adjective
new architecture can be produced, e.g:
and semantic associative, interrelate as
human comfort with lighting, temperature,
Saussure indicates; the arrangement of two
noise, etc…
units in space suggests a syntactic relation,
Psychologists; and are mentally compared to non-present
elements in space in an associative way.
1. Verbal responses of people about
buildings, cities, rooms, etc… Chomsky; each of us possesses an innate
2. Measure attitudes underlying what capacity for generating sentences gained
people say: Altman, Canter, through learning experiences and exercises
Proshansky, Rivlin, Lee, etc… in symbolic logic. Possession of certain
(published works and research) understandings of the world (deep
3. Osgood;s semantic differential; to structures) inspires every sentence to its
plot meaning people attach to certain possible absolute (uuter). Sentences are
concepts in a three-dimensional raised to form (surface structure) by which
“semantic space”; Hershberger set of we express our ideas by means of generative
scales for environmental research; rules. They give a basic sentence form! That
Acking and Honikmann- scale to can be transformed through rules; negative,
measure feeling of comfort, security, interrogative, affirmative, predictive!
social status, physical appearance, Chomsky describes them only through
degree of originality, bad/good, algorithms.
dirty/clean, dark/light, etc…
Pragmatics; deals withorigins, uses and
Its scale is put by experiments; which may effect of sign within the behaviours in which
suggest things to people they may never they occur. It looks at all ways architecture,
thought of, think of building in impossible as a sign system, affects its users.
ways. Establish constructs against people Architecture is a complex sign system; it
“construe” of the built environment. affects senses simultaneously; seeing
hearing, smelling, heating/cold, sense of
Syntax; deals with the combination of signs
positions, movement (kinesthetics).
without regard to their specific
significations, meaning, or their relations to
the behaviour in which they occur, ignoring
Some semioticians read architecture as a gardens – Stourhead in Wiltshire – tells a
visual matter ignoring other ways of story of (Henry Hoare) own life & of
carrying meaning, trivialising it. Aeneas.

Architecture means something to each of Functionalist ethics are with us for so long,
these sense when it works in conveying and it feels Morally Right;
information physically, like a telephone, a
e.g. Le Corbusier, Gropius, Mies &
book, etc; as information channel!
Historians such as (Sigried Giedion,
It sends information which can be received Nikolaus Pevsner, J.M. Richards) –
by one of the senses, then decoded Architecture is not a superficial style applied
according to the observer’s experience! to the outside of buildings)

A perceptual matter; simulates people Functional – attached to:

differently at different levels. One may see
1. Steel + concrete frame buildings
something visually beautiful and others may
2. Simple + rectangular forms
not.
Clad in White Stucco, Grey Concrete, or
Divisions of the field:
Glass
Pragmatic, semantic, syntactic; defined by
Such examples as a sensible concepts of
Charles Morris; nesting to each other.
function, do not fit purpose, solar
heating/overheating, noise penetration,
1. Pragmatic: deals with origins, uses costs, etc. such buildings were alerted to fit
and effect of sign within the continued habitation! Only those used as
behaviours in which they occur. museums like Le Corbusier's Villa Savoye
2. Semantic: deals with the & Maison La Roche!
signification of signs in all modes of
Exemption E.g. Bill Hilliers;
signifying with the ways in which
It encloses space to facilitate /inhibit range
they carry meaning.
of activities, filter out external environment,
3. Syntactic: deals with the
consume resources, and act as cultural
combination of signs without regard
symbols.
to their specific significations
(meanings) or their relations to their
behaviour in which they occur,
ignoring the effect those meaning
have on those who interpret them;
actual structure of sign systems.

Meaning was given to buildings in the past –

E.g. 18​th century picturesque landscape