Evaluation the theories of semiotics approach in the Reading of Architecture and Urbanism

This essay is considered an attempt to present how semiotic studies can be used as a perceptional aspect in reading architecture and urbanism. Appearance of each art is similar to creation of a “text” which transfers a set of customs, values and thought together with itself. Production of each “text” is based on its context, culture and intellectual bed of its origin society. Each text is an independent message from its sender, receiver and covers a set of signs. These signs are coded by author and audience (reader) decodes it on the basis of conventions and with the help of media relation, mental impressions, and personal points of view. Semiotics is the philosophical and scientific study of semiotic: the relation of signification with sign, mind and object or more generally, the creation of meaning. Semiotic is divided in two main thought schools of structuralism and post-structuralism. Structuralism semioticians (such as “Saussure”) mostly specialized in linguistic domain, typically consider a direct relationship between the signifier and signified. By contrast, post-structuralism semioticians (such as “Peirce”, “Umberto Eco”) consider the relationship as an indirect one and seek to discover the implicit “signified” hidden in social, logical and aesthetic issues. The architecture and urban spaces has been consisted of different layers of meaning like a text. The analysis of urbanism, architecture and their spatial configuration is always seen between cognition, culture, knowledge, literature and society. These layers would make different meaning and senses for projects to be appeared in the deepest layer of a scheme. This study compares architecture and urbanism reading (like as text) based on the abovementioned perspectives after considering the theories of semioticians.