The thesis focuses on the links between architecture and language, which it addresses in the form of two thematic strands - architecture as language and language in architecture. It emphasises the importance of the concepts of architecture as language and the preservation and development of architecture‘s own language.
The thesis first undertakes a chronological overview of the understanding of architecture as language in order to demonstrate the productivity of the issue at hand for architectural theory and practice. The thesis presents the critique of postmodernist semiotics, and highlights the semantic method of analysis as a more productive way of searching for meaning in architecture. The dimension of language in architecture is examined via a critique of postmodernist architectural language, exposing the limitations and cul-de-sacs encountered within its visual expression. The thesis concludes that this legacy, although redefined, resonates in contemporary era, intertwined with economic motivations of clients and investors, thus catalyzing an existing crisis of architectural meaning.
The thesis presents the system of language in architecture as consisting of a visual language and critical debates, which it divides into a closed and a shared language. The latter, which the architectural profession shares with the public, is visibly becoming less the architects‘ own and more subject to marketing logic. The thesis points out that in order to preserve architecture as an autonomous practice, which is also an art, it is necessary to reclaim the use of architecture‘s own language, especially in public debates.
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