Description
Book SynopsisThis book outlines the future of semiotic research in the study of urban spaces, with chapters authored by leading scholars in the field. It offers thought-provoking explanations of semiotic theory, methodology and applications with the goal of exploring recently developed approaches to the interpretive aspects of urban space.
Capturing the advances in research techniques within the field, this book will introduce the reader to key contemporary debates within the study of urban spaces. Chapters focus on the important topics of meaning-making and interpretation within cities. State-of-the-art approaches are presented to provide an enlightening outlook into this ever-evolving subject area.
Semiotic Approaches to Urban Space will be a valuable resource for both undergraduates and postgraduates in the fields of semiotics and urban studies, alongside those in disciplines such as visual studies and human geography. Researchers in these fields will find the cutting-edge research within this book to be of great interest.
Trade Review‘This is an important, innovative book that provides a toolbox for the study of the city as a semiotic object. Showcasing key contributions by semiotic scholars, the book unveils the different meanings of urban space, from the intentions of city planning to the reinterpretations of real users.’ -- Patrizia Violi, University of Bologna, Italy
‘This kaleidoscopic volume consolidates the semiotics of urban space through a collection of outstanding original contributions on educational space, monuments, planning, settlement, boundaries and others. The helmsmanship of the editors has ensured that this will be a landmark volume in the field for many years to come.’ -- Paul Cobley, Middlesex University, UK
‘This book enriches our comprehension of cities as complex semiotic objects. In confronting space as a text in which multiple languages interact, the book provides an understanding of urban space and semiotics from post-war seminal thinkers to the present day. The contributions of prominent voices in the field make it an invaluable resource for academics and researchers across various disciplines.’ -- Agustín Cocola-Gant, University of Lisbon, Portugal
Table of ContentsContents: Introduction to Semiotic Approaches to Urban Space 1 Federico Bellentani, Mario Panico and Lia Yoka PART I CONCEPTS 1 The semiotics of settlement space 16 Alexandros Ph. Lagopoulos 2 Ten theses for a semiotic study of the city: notes, observations, proposals 32 Gianfranco Marrone 3 Devices for the representation and the spectacularisation of urban space: views, landscapes and logo-monuments 67 Isabella Pezzini 4 Urban landscape as text 82 Olga Lavrenova 5 The complexity of cities and the semiotic gaze: keeping the ‘thickness’ of urban spaces 98 Francesco Mazzucchelli PART II MODELS 6 Semiotic models of settlement space 111 Alexandros Ph. Lagopoulos 7 Dynamics of madrasa learning institutions in the Ayyubid and Mamluk capital cities 137 Manar Hammad 8 Mental models of urban space and their semiotic means 157 Leonid Tchertov 9 Reworking boundaries: from gates to the architecture of openness 174 Charikleia Pantelidou 10 Semiotic space for native biota in the city 192 Riin Magnus, Tiit Remm and Kalevi Kull PART III ACTIVATIONS 11 Envisaging the city: roadmap for an interdisciplinary study of urban ‘facescapes’ 209 Massimo Leone 12 Spatial practices: convergences and dialogues between semiotics and urban planning 220 Pierluigi Cervelli 13 Resemiotisation of urban landscapes: relational geographies and signification processes in post-socialist cities 230 Mariusz Czepczyński 14 When schools intersect the everyday world of the city: educational space as a dialogical-transformative quality of the urban 244 Kyriaki Tsoukala 15 Urban activated public spaces in the contemporary city 257 Nikolaos-Ion Terzoglou 16 Metropoesis: semiotics, fictional cities and speculative urban design 266 Mattia Thibault, Vincenzo Idone Cassone and Gabriele Ferri Index 289
