Language
•
The 1960s saw the revival of interest in the question of meaning in
architecture •
This was mirrored in the questioning of the use and definition of
terms with which the discipline described itself
These two issues together led to the so-called linguistic analogy -
can architecture be understood as a form of visual language? •
The questions raised by this: - to what extent does architecture have conventions, in the way language does; - are these conventions so widely understood that there is a ‘social contract’ in architecture, which enables the comprehension of architecture?
Peter Eisenman, ‘Post-functionalism’ •
Questioned the term ‘postmodern’, claiming that modernism itself never happened
•
Claimed that the relationship between form and function had been present since the Renaissance
•
The quest for type, or ‘ideal themes in form’ was balanced with programmatic accommodation Eisenman, House II, 1969-70
• •
•
Industrialisation introduced new functions, making existing typologies inadequate This resulted in the ‘form follows function’ formula But the ‘postmodern’ period is just a continuation of the questions that started with the Renaissance
•
He proposes postfunctionalism:
‘fragmentation of typical forms into signs’ This would according to Eisenman constitute the actual modernist project
•
This was is partly in tune with the work of Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown: Like Eisenman, they reject a
literal representation of function But they accept that the idea that
function is still worthy of representation, as a meaning in architecture • ‘If you take the signs away there is no place’ - this statement challenged phenomenology and its insistence on place-making
Decorated shed preferred over the Duck (Learning from Las Vegas)
•
Umberto Eco in ‘Function and Sign: Semiotics in Architecture’ asserted that function is the primary meaning in architecture, which is in direct contrast with Eisenman’s position
•
Charles Jencks and George Baird Meaning in Architecture (1969) Compilation of writing that uses structuralist and semiological ideas in architecture
•
Jencks: ‘semantization is inevitable’ ‘two points are relevant to my purpose: (1) that every act, object and statement that man perceives is meaningful (even ‘nothing’) and (2) that the frontiers of meaning are always, momentarily, in a state of collapse and paradox.’ Jencks
Charles Jencks The Language of Post-Modern Architecture (1977)
•
A wide-ranging study of the
‘expressive content’ of architecture •
Looks at film sets, hotel lobbies, hot-dog stands, etc., not just buildings
•
It was widely read (a bestseller); he announced the ‘death’ of modernism
•
Diana Agrest and Mario Gandelsonas propose an interpretation of the link between linguistics and architecture
•
The influence of Roland Barthes is evident in their work, the idea of ‘reading’ the city for example (Gandelsonas investigated this in The Urban Text)
•
In ‘Semiotics and Architecture’ they distinguish between linguistics and communication theory
• 1 Semotiocs/semiology: science of the different systems of
linguistic signs - It deals with the nature of signs and how they behave within a system - It involves signification, or the production of meaning - This is accomplished through two components of the sign: the signifier (word) and the signified (object)
• 2 Communication theory: use and effects of signs - their function and reception in the transmission of a message •
For Agrest and Gandelsonas, semiotics offers a way of understanding the
production of meaning in architecture
•
Geoffrey Broadbent ‘A Plain Man’s Guide to the Theory of Signs in Architecture’
•
Buildings carry meaning and architects should understand how this meaning is created in order to prevent accidental meanings
•
Modern functionalism failed to create a ‘machine-like and meaning-free’ architecture Architecture has an ‘inescapable semantic dimension’
•
Robert Venturi, Vanna Venturi House, Philadelphia, 1962
• •
The distinction between the semantic and syntactic aspects of language is to show that architecture might work primarily in the former realm Robert Venturi, Michael Graves, Robert Stern and Charles Moore are the postmodern architects in whose work the semantic aspect is prominent
Graves, Humana Building, Louisville, 1982
Graves, Portland Building, 1980
Charles Moore, Piazza d’Italia, New Orleans 1978
Charles Moore, Lawrence Hall, Williams College Museum of Art, 1982
•
Unlike Agrest and Gandelsonas, Broadbent insists that ultimately the
‘social contract’ is missing in architecture (as opposed to language) • •
Apart from the linguistic and communication theories, Broadbent also tackles behavioural and environmental psychology But rather than just being read visually, architecture should be (and inevitably is) approached with all the senses FAT (Fashion Architecture Taste)
Blue House, Office, Apartment, London, 2004
The Villa, community building, Hoogvliet,The Netherlands, 2008
Refurbishement of Tanner Point, Brookes Estate, London, 2005
Islington Square - Social Housing, New Islington, Manchester 2006
Grote Koppel, Amersfoort
Thornton Heath Library, Croydon 2010