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How does architecture construct meaning? Is architecture a visual language? In this essay, Antoni Gaudi's architecture is examined as poetic discourse.
Gaston Bachelard attributes two functions to language: signification and poetry He believes that "the poem, which interweaves real and unreal, [...] gives dynamism to language by means of the dual activity of signification and poetry" (xxxi). For Bachelard, the "real" is found in "signification" or in the utilitarian aspect of language, while the creative aspect is found in the "unreal" or in a "poetry" that "awaken[s] [... ] the automatism of language" (xxxi). Furthermore, he places poetry "a little above the language of signification"; where its "linguistic impulses [... ] stand out from the ordinary rank of pragmatic language" (xxiii). How are we to apply utilitarian and poetic language to architecture? Michael Graves, in his article "A Case for Figurative Architecture," compares common language to the internal structure of a building, that is, pragmatic, constructional, and technical requirements. Like the verbal language that combines verbs, adjectives, and nouns in a particular way to create meaning, architecture's syntax combines the basic elements of physical structure: walls, floors, ceilings, doors, and windows, in order to construct the building. On the other hand, Graves states that poetic form in architecture is receptive to issues external to the building, and integrates the myths and rituals of society: "Poetic forms in architecture are sensitive to the figurative, associative, and anthropomorphic attitudes of a culture" (86). Buildings rely on the technical realm to be built, but not necessarily incorporate the poetic realm: a figurative language full of metaphors and symbols. Antoni Gaudi's architecture is sensitive to both: the "real" or utilitarian aspect of the common language and the "unreal," or creative, aspect of the poetic message. His buildings, three-dimensional texts, interweave a constructive narrative where textural, chromatic, and decorative inferences, as well as radical changes of form and materials, produce a poetic discourse rich in metaphor, symbol, myth, and ritual, a unique style rooted in his Catalan origins.
To approach the architectural narrative of Gaudi's work, it is important to analyze how buildings carry meaning. According to Umberto Eco, any object, architectur- al or not, can communicate a message. The theory of signs of Ferdinand de Saussure and Charles...