Chun-Yu Hsieh
Conceptual Sketch As Language: A Semantic Approach to Architectural Drawings
The various forms of the relationship between language and drawing have always been of great interest in architectural theory. Jean Louis Durand thought of architectural drawing as a neutral medium to represent reality as well as a kind of language to transmit human thought, and Bart Lootsma viewed the architectural drawings as computer language which can be summarized and structured into a complexity. However, the relation between language and architectural drawing can also be situated on the semiotic level, which Ferdinand de Saussure framed in his Course in General Linguistics. This thesis proposes to use the sign system of Saussure (1913) as main reference to establish the major criteria of testing a specific sort of architectural drawing, the conceptual sketch. The aim of this research is to re-examine the linguistic paradigm and possibly develop a way of thinking through the graphic.

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