Visual Literacy in Built Environment Context

n this article, we present a case study of a student composing a significant text in a high school class. We focus on his inscription and representation of meaning in the textual codes and the ways in which those codes were interpreted by his readership, particularly his teacher. The text was an architectural drawing of a house that the student, Rick (all names are pseudonyms), designed to suit the life he imagined himself living. It embodied a particular meaning for him and a vision of how it would function in service of his conception of a good life. Critical aspects of that inscription were apparent to his teacher, Bill, following much discussion with Rick. Yet Bill read key aspects of Rick's design as violations of common-sense rules for designing homes for the suburban housing market and consequently resisted, although ultimately accepted, Rick's design as a viable text. The tension between Rick's inscription of narrative meaning in his text and the meaning anticipated and read by his teacher-a tension that existed not only between student and teacher but also between the broader cultures in which each participated-served as the I 70 ABSTRACTS CETTE ÉTUDE analyse la composition par un élève de lycée du plan d'une maison pour une classe de dessin d'architecture. Ce texte a été produit en relation avec les lectures de ce texte par son professeur et d'autres lecteurs potentiels. Les auteurs de cette étude ont adopté une perspective vygotskyenne pour appréhender les positions, les buts et les outils au moyen desquels il a composé ses plans architecturaux, s'appuyant sur une théorie culturelle de la lecture pour analyser comment ce texte a été compris par son lecteur le plus proche, le professeur. Les données comportent des prises de notes à partir d'observations effectuées quotidiennement tout au long d'un cours semestriel, un entretien avec le professeur à partir de ces observations, des objets techniques tels que les brouillons de l'élève et son dessin final, une session de compte rendu enregistrée au cours de laquelle le professeur discute du dessin avec l'étudiant, un protocole concourant de pensée à haute voix provenant de l'étudiant pendant qu'il dessinait la maison, et un protocole rétrospectif dans lequel l'étudiant réfléchissait sur son processus de composition en utilisant comme stimulus le dessin architectural final. Cette analyse a permis d'identifier un ensemble de processus et de relations sociales impliquées dans la composition et la lecture d'un plan de maison, comportant le rôle des connaissances et des pratiques culturelles dans l'apprentissage de l'étudiant dans l'approche du dessin d'architecture, des tensions entre les objectifs de l'étudiant et sa lecture de l'évaluation, des tensions entre définitions de l'économie déterminant des conceptions différentes d'un plan de maison, et des tensions entre l'inscription de la signification dans le texte architectural de l'étudiant et l'encodage de la signification par le professeur lors de sa lecture du texte. La négociation que fait l'étudiant de ces processus et de ces tensions contribue à la compréhension que l'on peut avoir du projet plus large dans lequel il était engagé, à savoir le développement continu d'une identité et d'un projet de vie.

Proceedings of the 2nd International and Interdisciplinary Conference on Image and Imagination, 2020

The following article intends to deal with the theme of representation in its various conceptions and types. Starting from a first approach focused on the terms of narration and expression, we interrogate ourselves about the difference that exists in applying the notion of graphics to them. In this way, we introduce the architectural sphere, which is able to express its own language only through graphic representation, thus communicating the idea behind the project. As a consequence, the development and changes sustained over time by the discipline regarding its expressive representations are addressed. Particular attention is given to the metamorphosis and renewal due to the advent of electronics: in fact, digital technology has transformed the vision of space and provided a new modeling methodology, determining a modern concept of graphics. The implications that derive from it are manifested in multiple ways of reading and narrating the architectural project; the current characteristics of objectification and expression in contemporary representations are therefore treated. Finally, there is a space for reflection on the importance of the knowledge of traditional design in approaching the most avant-garde techniques.

ATINER ' s Conference Paper Series, 2016

This study aims at searching for alternatives of architectural experiences in literature. Architecture is something abstract that can be scrutinized. Besides, architectural spaces are concrete spaces that can be experienced. Phenomenological readings will provide a base for abstract and concrete duality of spatial experience in conception of architecture. Specifically, architecture supplies spaces for people, and works of literature can give narrations of these spaces. Factual experience is possible by being in or around, moving through and observing spaces. It is not always possible to directly experience an architectural space represented in a photograph, film, or a book. Photographs and films put forth a visual source, whereas books give a textual source. These two sources do not provide real experience, but different kinds of perception (experience). However, what differentiates a textual source from a visual one is that it allows imagination of a space derived from words. In the case of a visual source, most of the time, an image of a particular space is presented as already constructed by having already passed through one’s mind and imagination; as a result, that image reflects the perception of a space from a certain viewpoint. An imaginary experience, on the other hand, is assumed to be achieved by reading words and translating them into an image of abstract spatiality. Therefore, a work of literature becomes a kind of domain where its reader is able to construct an image of the speculated spaces by his own interpretation. In the scope of this study, a novel written in Turkish, titled “Apartment Void (Apartman Boşluğu)” is chosen to look at architecture from a phenomenological perspective, because it offers spatial narrations that can be analyzed in the framework of phenomenological comparisons between the notions of space-place, temporary-permanent, inside-outside, and in-between situations. The author, Hakan Bıçakçı, is not a well-known writer; the preference of this particular work is solely due to its spatial narrative value.

The aim of this study is to understand the relation and connection between the architectural design, architectural visual presentation and architectural product itself.

Reading research quarterly, 2005

In this seminar it is suggested that the various incommensurables that arise in investigation of architecture and interpretation – in the interpretative situation, in the situations in which interpretation arises in architecture, and in different relationships with architecture – will require developments in architectural thinking from both hermeneutics and formal rhetoric. The seminar is an introduction to and status report on a main branch of my research where, as teacher, researcher, critic and designer, I am seeking reciprocity of designers' and users' comprehension of architecture in everyday life and reciprocity of needs and intents. Interpretation and meaning are core issues in this quest.

Thresholds, 1996

Britain International of Linguistics Arts and Education (BIoLAE) Journal

Between objects and observers in the world of architecture have a close relationship. In assessing and appreciating an architectural work it is necessary to synchronize architectural objects as a sign. The sign in question means an architectural work that functions as a sentence that can be read and has a meaning or meaning. The position of an architectural work depends on the observer in appreciating it. In general, this paper explains that an architectural object has an understanding that can be understood by the observer in accordance with the appreciation reached to the observer. The object under study was Wisma Garuda, a budget hotel. Where the hotel applies the concept of experience in architecture, but it reads as Buddhist philosophy by the curator of the Indonesian Pavilion 2018. Even though the architect of the building does not use Buddhist philosophy, based on an analysis of the interconnectedness of Husserl's and Buddha's philosophy it proves that the meaning rec...

2021

Elaborating on a host of historical and theoretical references, in this conversation Alberto Perez-Gomez suggests a course of action for the development of the architectural discipline; opposing the banality of scientism and rationalism, and recognizing instead the need for a degree of obscurity and ambiguity as essential to the full exercise of our humanity in relation to what we build and inhabit. Metaphors, myths, stories and poems, he notes, are not only useful instruments to represent architecture’s aesthetics and purpose, but elemental human practices that define who we are and how we know. Tense between different polarities, the conversation explores architecture as a way to find sense and meaning by relying on timeless wisdom in the face of the many distractions and distortions that characterize our time.

Archnet IJAR, 2011

Despite the considerable contributions in the developing world relevant to the development of sustainable environments, the concept of sustainable architecture is yet not widely considered within most of the developing communities whose priority lies with the immediate resolutions of many existing problems. This paper aims to analyze the challenges and applicability of sustainable architecture concepts in developing countries in order to develop a strategy to create a more sustainable built environment. It represents a pragmatic approach to investigate the role that indigenous practices and heritageinspired architectural solutions as key elements in this respect. The study suggests that utilization of scientific studies conducted on these traditional features and solutions in the early design stages and a computeraided adaptation using the available software can introduce a much progressive and environmentallyaware architecture. As well, the study supposes that rational and pragmatic practices should be executed through an integrative approach to produce a synthesis of both pre-industrial and high tech-based design. This approach may confer a new dimension of hybridism to a distinct regional architecture. It might result in a much more ecologically-aware built environment as well as maintain a high level of selfconsciousness.