REDEFINING FUNCTION THROUGH COMMUNICATION

1. One of the first questions for semiotics to face, then, if it aims to provide keys to the
cultural phenomena in this field, is whether it is possible to interpret functions as
having something to do with communication; and the point of it is that seeing
functions from the semiotic point of view might permit one to understand and define
them better, precisely as functions, and thereby to discover other types of functionality,
which are just as essential but which a straight functionalist interpretation keeps one
from perceiving.

2. Museums can be seen as mediating spaces, or structures, using their collections as

mediating tools for mental and cultural exchanges, thus as communication media,
supporting a continuous production of signs and messages.

3. A museum is much more than the structure of exhibiting. It could be a physical system of
heating and cooling, of lighting and darkening, of moving and staying, of preserving and
decaying, of observing and learning. Also, it is a spiritual structure of recording and
describing, of hiding and revealing, of bounding and merging. However, it is always a
structure for public using; therefore, one of the most important systems would be
entering and leaving. We can’t only think about an exhibition room to understand the
museum without considering the process of transition.

4. Aesthetic symbolism is what characterizes architecture as a form of art. Cutting directly

to the main point, Goodman states the conditions for architecture in these tenns: "A
building is a work of art only insofar as it signifies, means, refers, symbolizes in some
way." Architecture is not typically descriptive or representational, although its sculptural
parts may be representational. However, a building may exemplify properties of its
own structure that it literally possesses such as pillars, beams, proportions, weight, and
volume, as well as the properties of steel, stone, and cement. Metaphorically, a building
may express feelings and ideas that it does not literally possess. In both
exemplification and expression, the symbolism runs from the symbol to various labels
that apply to it.

5. The patterns, feelings, and ideas found in works of art infonn and direct our ways of
feeling and thought "by stimulating inquisitive looking, sharpening perception, raising
visual intelligence ... "Understood in this context, the museum's primary concern is the
interrelationship between art and ideas. Hence it is essential from his perspective that
the architecture of a building participate along with the other works of art associated with
a museum in realizing the museum's educational aims

6. Architectural forms and buildings that have been purged of cultural meaning is one of the
main issues of the contemporary architecture. The issue of meaningless architecture
concludes to various social issues and dissociations since buildings have less cultural
meanings in their context to share with a society. As the result, the 10 problem can be
 discussed in other concepts of contemporary social issues like "identity crisis", "cultural
fragmentation", "social dissociation", "personal alienation", and forgotten role of
architecture with its symbolic aspect in reconnecting human with his/her environment

7. "From the disintegration of history to the exploitation of the natural world, it is evident
that modern man no longer forms part of a meaningful totality: he has become a stranger
to his world and to himself. He is isolated, necessarily self-interested, and careless since
he does not feel the need to cultivate a world anymore. ... The breakdown of established
order and symbolic meaning, hallmarks of traditional human societies, sets modern man
adrift Broken connections alienate him from environment, society, even himself."

8. Elements and tools of semiotic analysis:

 Signs
 Codes
 Signifier/Signified
 Denotations/Connotations
 Paradigm/Syntagm
 Metaphor/Metonymy

9. Charles Peirce distinguished three types of signs :

Iconic: a sign that resembles the signified in appearance or possesses its character
(e.g., a portrait or a diagram);

Symbolic: a sign that does not resemble the signified, but which is arbitrary or
conventional (e.g., languages); and

Indexical: a sign that is connected to the signified by a certain cause and effect
relationship (e.g., smoke or footprint)
10. In architecture, one sees the building, has an interpretation of it, and usually puts that
into words. In most cases there is no direct relation between a word and a thing, except
in the highly rare case of onomatopoeia. That most cultures are under the illusion that
there is a direct connection has to be explained in various ways.

11. An example was provided by a team of archeologists who realized that most of the
earliest cities used to be circular, which were then replaced by square or rectangular
cities over time. By relating this observation to the semiotics of forms, in which circles
have dynamic nature and squares and rectangles have static nature, we can assume
that round cities were inhabited by nomads, whereas square or rectangular cities
indicated a settled life.

12. The interpretation of buildings could never be controlled by the designer, just as the
author cannot predetermine the reader's reading. He provided an example through
Modernist architects who believed that they would find universal forms beyond cultural
relativity. However, given that architecture is a language, no signifier could exist without
a signified and even these buildings, which were meant to be meaningless, were still
readable.

CONTEXT IN ARCHITECTURE

13. We could begin with a simple and intuitive listing of possible meanings of the term in
architecture. First, it would be the spatial context, which in architectural interpretation
seems to be more customary. It could mean:
1) a specific building seen in the context of other buildings (this mainly refers to the city);
2) a specific building seen in the context of the surrounding landscape;
3) a specific element of the building seen in the context of all the other elements of the
building;
4) the relationship between a building’s exterior and interior (this list is far from complete,
of course). Such a context can be understood within the model of classical semantics,
although the city in this case would appear as ‘simply a great architecture’ as it was
thought to be by Leon Battista Alberti (see Solá-Morales 1996: 10). But it could as well
be a different context – not spatial:
1) the context of the same type or author or period/style of buildings (they can stand
apart both in space and time from the given object);
2) the context of theories and concepts related to the building;
3) the context of a certain lifestyle (forms of life) etc. (this enumeration is not meant to be
complete).

14. Solá-Morales introduced five categories to conceptualise the network of interactions

between architecture and the city.
The first category is the form of change: ‘Mutations’. This means that spaces in cities are
‘undergoing genuine mutations: sudden, random and unforeseeable from the slow logic
 of evolution. These are processes with a high degree of autonomy, in which the principal
line of development proceeds from within the process itself rather than from any
demands or restrictions imposed by the existing environment’ (Solá-Morales 1996: 13).
The other categories are:
1) the form of motion: ‘Flows’ (‘material and immaterial flows, physical and real or purely
informational and symbolic, can no longer be treated as separate’);
2) the form of residence: ‘Habitations’;
3) the form of exchange: ‘Containers’, in which the exchange, the expense, the
distribution of gifts are produced. As Solá-Morales writes: ‘A museum, a stadium, a
shopping mall, an opera house, a historic building conserved in order to be visited, a
tourist centre: these are containers.’ Architecture becomes just a dressing for
consumption.
And the last category – the form of absence: ‘Terrain Vague’ (lost, empty lands), the only
one where historical meanings are preserved (see Solá-Morales 1996: 15–16, 20–21).

15. Architecture can play an illustrative role by representing meaning through the built
environment. This points out that the buildings are able to represent and connect to
socio-cultural traditions or express one's opinions and ideas. Rapoport (1990b) clarified
statement, when he declared that “a variety of cultural or symbolic values can be
expressed in a building through choices in materials, colors, forms, sizes, furnishings,
and landscaping” (Rapoport, 1990b).

16. According to Erman (2004), the symbolic performance is defined by symbolic meaning of
the user and it is an element of building performance. Therefore, the symbolic meaning
arises in the user’s mind, relying on physical quality of the buildings (Erman, 2004).
Symbols give meaning to a plant, object and animal; likewise, symbolism is the practical
use of any iconic representation by careening particular conventional meaning
(Jarosinski, 2002). Moreover, human provides meanings to the images that it received
from objects and by his symbolic mind. Also, spatial relations between human and
buildings are created by means of symbols more than forms; and more than being seen
as form, architecture is seen as symbol. Therefore, a modern transparent building’s
concept should be inherently symbolic or carry meaning; also its meaning is established
by the ideas, images, and feelings, which it rises in the mind of visitors.

17. In sum, Symbols should rely on profound memories and one’s perception of the spiritual
world also, sympathetic with our tradition and origins. This is done by diverse symbolic
forms inherent in our mind: through art, religion, history, philosophy, etc. Additionally, a
building is nothing less than the symbolic representation of the tradition, values, culture,
and creativity levels of the special country in which it stands.

18. Contextual architecture. Also called Contextualism, the term suggests an architecture
that responds to its surroundings by respecting what is already there,
unlike Constructivism or Deconstructivism which deliberately work against
established geometries and fabric.
19. “There is no way to perform architecture in a book. Words and drawings can only
produce paper space and not the experience of real space. By definition, paper space is
imaginary: it is an image.”
Tschumi supposes that without all four entities, there is no architecture, although he fails
to clearly define why that would be. In his essay he does mention that:
“Architecture resembles a masked figure, it cannot easily be unveiled. It is always hiding:
behind drawstrings, behind words, behind precepts, behind habits, behind technical
constraints. Yet it is the very difficulty of architecture that makes it intensely desirable.
This unveiling is part of the pleasure of architecture."

20. “One may conclude that this design is nothing but a visual expression and clarification of
that concept which one has in the intellect, and that which one imagines in the mind."

21. In his Elements of Semiology, Roland Barthes writes, "a truly meaningless architecture
remains outside the realm of culture and thus it would cease to be architecture."
Architecture is a cultural product, and its meaning is understood when we study
architecture as a cultural system, a system of signs, through which people identify with
their environment, i. e. their environment becomes meaningful.

22. “The term poetics originates from the Greek word пойейн (do/make) and the most
precise meaning of the concept is broader and is based on the notion of poetics as a
philosophical basis of aesthetics. … Poetics is the set of principles and rules that the
architect develops in his/her work, deliberately or naturally, like any other artist, the
techniques and methods, which are being used to submit his/her internal monologue to
people’s judgment.
23. Architectural buildings are the translation of practical, functional activity and
socioeconomic conditions into physical constructions or material forms