Architecture
Read William Whyte’s essay ‘How do Building’s Mean? Some Issues of Interpretation in the History of Architecture’. Although Whyte is an historian rather than an architect, he arguably makes some good points about the emergence of forms of signification in recent years. However it could also be argued that his understanding of architecture and how it ‘means’ is too simplistic since he shows no understanding of the design process, the various forms of representation it employs and the fact that buildings are experienced in a fragmentary and temporal manner.
Take an example of a building that is presented via a particular medium: photographs, drawings, magazine articles, books, video, film, journal articles, text, etc. and analyse the way in which the ‘meaning’ of the building is explicitly and implicitly conveyed within that medium.
Be careful not to consider this a simple description of a building. You are being asked to define the entire array of discursive context(s) that are being displayed and the way in which their inter-textuality contributes to a cumulative meaning. How is the idea of ‘architecture’ being conveyed and what, finally, does this building ‘mean’?
Take an example of a building that is presented via a particular medium: photographs, drawings, magazine articles, books, video, film, journal articles, text, etc. and analyse the way in which the ‘meaning’ of the building is explicitly and implicitly conveyed within that medium.
Be careful not to consider this a simple description of a building. You are being asked to define the entire array of discursive context(s) that are being displayed and the way in which their inter-textuality contributes to a cumulative meaning. How is the idea of ‘architecture’ being conveyed and what, finally, does this building ‘mean’?
