Speaking architecture
a semiotic study toward understanding visual communication in architecture
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Abstract
Architecture communicates. Through its appearance it can communicate a function, time or place, or some kind of ideal. However, architecture does not communicate with words like humans do: instead, it communicates through a four- dimensional, non-verbal language consisting of forms, spatial organisation and materialisation. The problem is, architecture is usually not designed to communicate but to function and architects are often unaware of the message their design can communicate. In other words: they do not design from a communication perspective. It can, however, be interesting to elaborate on this subject in order to gain a better understanding of communicative meaning in architecture and to design architecture from a communication perspective.
This research connects the fields of architectural and communication inquiry in order to find out what and how architecture can communicate. The outcomes of this research are translated into the design of a multi-interpretational market and event space in Haarlem.