Meaning and Effect: Revisiting Semiotics in Architecture

Author: André Loeckx & Hilde Heynen
Year: 2020 (in The Figure of Knowledge: Conditioning Architectural Theory, 1960s–1990s, Leuven UP)
Source type: chapter
Raw file: raw/chapters/loeckx-heynen-2020-meaning-and-effect-semiotics.md

Summary

Loeckx and Heynen map the "forest of symbols" of architectural semiotics (roughly 1960–1980) and reassess its intellectual value for architecture. They distinguish the Saussurean (French) tradition of sémiologie (signification, langue) from the Peircean Anglo-American tradition of semiotic (semiosis, effect, pragmatism, index/icon/symbol). Through Eco, Broadbent, Jencks, and the "architecture of the city"/typo-morphology approach (Rossi), and on toward Derrida's "semiosis without semiotics," they revisit what architectural semiotics achieved and the opportunities it missed.

Key Claims

• Two traditions: Saussure's semiology focuses on signification within a system (langue, the arbitrary sign, association + differentiation); Peirce's semiotics focuses on "working" semiosis and effect in the real world (representamen→object→interpretant; icon/index/symbol; "three modes of being"; abduction). Barthes extended Saussurean semiology to nonverbal domains (fashion, food, the city), including connotation (where ideology enters).
• Eco's redemption of functionalism: Eco treats architectural signs as "sign vehicles" with denotative "primary functions" and connotative "secondary functions"; "considering function as meaning is central": "—every usage is converted into a sign of itself" (Barthes). Form both enables and communicates function; Sullivan's "form follows function" re-read. Architecture works as an "open language system" with technical/typological internal codes and social/anthropological external codes (proxemics).
• Broadbent and design modes: four design modes (pragmatic, iconic/typologic, analogic, canonical) mapped onto Peirce's index/icon/symbol — a significant crossover of semiotics and design theory, though it limits Peirce's triad.
• Jencks and the "language of postmodern architecture": modern architecture "for its obsessive concentration on indexical meanings" squandered communication; postmodern "double-coding" addresses both an elite and the public; Jencks reads metaphor (Ronchamp, hotdog stand, Gaudi's Casa Batlo), though often at the level of outward appearance/spectacle.
• The architecture of the city / typology: Rossi's Architecture of the City treats the city as built "architecture" ("function follows form"), with type analogous to the Saussurean sign and typology/morphology to the paradigmatic/syntagmatic axes; the "Analogous City" (Canaletto's capriccio) as a project.
• Semiosis without semiotics (Derrida): post-structuralist deconstruction continues the semiotic impulse ("traces," unlimited semiosis) — but Peirce's "pragmatic maxim" prevents the endless deferral; Loeckx & Heynen aim to "redeem rather than discredit" architectural semiotics.

Connections

Concepts: Iconic Architecture · Consumerism · Everyday Architecture
Authors: André Loeckx & Hilde Heynen · Hilde Heynen · Charles Jencks
Debates: Spectacle vs. Function
Related source notes: The Iconic Building Is Here to Stay (Jencks)

Direct Quotes

"[E]very usage is converted into a sign of itself." (Barthes, as quoted by Eco)

"Modern architecture is ... to be blamed 'for its obsessive concentration on indexical meanings' that promotes 'a banal and literalist life of simplified functionality.'" (on Jencks)

"[A]rchitecture's 'open language system' relies upon both internal and external codes." (on Eco)

Open Questions

• Does the semiotic turn (Eco/Peirce) provide a rigorous account of how architecture signifies (and so of the icon/image economy), or does its formalism limit it to semantics without the political economy of the spectacle?