This document is a reaction paper for a course on Theories of Architecture and Urbanism. It summarizes and discusses two readings - "Semiotics and Architecture; Ideological Consumption or Theoretical Work" and "The Geometry of Feeling". The paper argues that architectural theory should be separated from ideology, as ideology can be manipulated whereas theory helps explain relationships between society, culture and the environment. It also notes that the first reading discusses architecture theory similarly to semiotic theory, which examines the relationships between signs, signifiers and what is signified.

1. BACHELOR OF SCIENCE (HONOURS) IN ARCHITECTURE
THEORIES OF ARCHITECTURE AND URBANISM (ARC61303/ARC2224)
SYNOPSIS: REACTION PAPER (MARCH 2015) [5 MARKS]
NAME: Garnette Dayang Robert ID: 0315491
LECTURER: Mr. Shen Fei TUTORIAL TIME: 4PM-6PM
SYNOPSIS NO: 3 (GROUP B) READER TITLE: The Geometry Of Feeling
AUTHOR: Juhani Pallasmaa
The reading of ‘Semiotics and Architecture; Ideological Consumption or Theoretical Work’,
by the authors, Diana Argest and Mario Gandelsonas proposed a need for a theory that is
distinguished from architecture ideology.
The architectural theory grows out of this ideology and yet at the same this is radically
against it. People thought that we were the center of the universe but, Copernicus opposed
that ideology and came up with a theory that we are not the center of the universe.
Copernicus received a lot of pressure to stop him from publishing his theories to the whole
world and through this way of opposing ideologies in order to gain knowledge may have
affected human progress throughout the centuries. In another way to put it is that the
authors discuss to separate ideology from theory when it comes to architecture. I agree
with this sentence as to because ideology is used to aid the practical functionality of
architecture, but it should not be used as instructions to follow when designing, as ideology
is man-made and can be manipulated. For example, Zaha Hadid designed the Vitra Fire
Station in Germany, she designed base on her own liking, and it end up not catering for its
purposes. Eventually firemen moved out to another building. It shows that a design can be
manipulated to be aiding for the better or worse. Theory however helps to pinpoint the
relationship between everything, like society, culture and the environment on how the
architecture is being created.
The authors also talks about architecture theory similarly to the theory of semiotics. I’m not
sure what does this mean but there’s three main things to understanding semiotics and
those are the sign, signifier and signified and they are all different meaning but can relate
to one word. A sign is a symbol that signifies what we see. A signifier is how one relates
through image to the sign when one sees it. Finally, signified is when one sees something
and relating the word to that ‘something’.
WORD COUNT: 334 DATE: 24.04.2016 MARK: GRADE:
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