An investigation upon language of architecture: Current architectural discourses and myths in Turkey

Language is, in broad meaning, a complex communication system that has verbal, written, and visual signs and on which various rules or characteristics can be defined. Architecture can mainly be expressed as a cultural phenomenon, a process, or an area of activity that includes intellectual or practical actions about place and space. Notion of architecture and language cannot be fit into common definitions easily in consequence of the vastness and complexity of their scope. However, their relation to each other can vary, and effect of language upon architecture phenomenon can be observable in almost every phase of architectural production. Architecture can have a linguistic end product. For example, a manifesto, or an architectural object can be transformed into a visual sign, or a place can indicate visual cues that it is a public space. Sometimes language is a tool for architecture, and sometimes it is a tool for architectural language. For example, dialogue is established in the process of architectural production, the experience of architectural space is transmitted through language, or discussions take place on various architectural publications after the creation of the architectural object. In this sense, the importance of architecture's relation to its textual productions is one of the major concerns of this thesis. Therefore, current texts about architectural issues, which can be in any kind or in any media, are the main materials of the thesis. In this thesis "language of architecture" includes all written or verbal discourses produced in the architectural environment. It should be noted that the "architectural language" defined by concepts such as visual representation (model, photograph, plan, section, etc.) and the typological qualities of the space frequently used in the architectural environment is different from this thesis. In this sense, texts on current architectural issues published any kind of media are included. The thesis benefits from the methodology and terminology of semiotic as well as discourse analysis. This method can be defined as a meta-language reading by using scaling for architecture texts. Therefore, architectural issues, which are investigated in a scale of sentence, textual and intertextual type, are studied in a coherent way. In this context, the notion of myth, where it is meaningful and observable especially in the scale of intertextuality, is emphasized. Architectural writings are handled in a level of analysis: sentence, text, and intertextuality. The reason for this is the wide variety of textual examples in architecture often meaningful within a certain scale: Thus, a tweet or an aphorism-like sentence, a paragraph describing a place, and the common points of different project descriptions can be included to examine by scaling. One thing to be aware of is that boundaries of these scales are relatively flexible, for example an architectural definition may sometimes be examined in sentence scale, while it sometimes has to be analyzed in textual scale. It should also be emphasized that this method is not an approach that attempts to combine texts randomly. On the contrary, the diversity and amount of selected examples aims to maintain integrity and contextuality of the basic discourse of the thesis. Therefore, citations from different texts such as architectural news, descriptions, definitions, and discourses are an important part of the thesis. A myth can be a powerful device to think and to criticize about architectural language -which is consist of texts, terminology, and discourse etc.- in a broader sense. A myth can be described as an argument or the whole of the arguments, which are, consist of either valid or invalid sentences. It is also both a cultural communication system and a meta-language that delivers some messages. Therefore, it is a meta-reading where its resource bases upon texts and discourse. It is a time based concept -meaning that it is temporal-, and formed through a collective process. In short, there has to be common issues, and some statements and discourses -written or told- about those issues. Though it should be noted that not every text or statement has the ability to create a myth. Therefore, architecture, which is a comprehensive social phenomenon, provides an environment suitable for creating a myth. The main aim of the thesis is to investigate the discourses of contemporary architectural texts and to create a critical perspective for the way architecture is perceived and narrated. If the architectural texts are regarded as a communication system, many cases can be discussed such as the context of the text, the recipients, the senders, and the message. In this way, the collective definition produced the architectural environment and the production processes can be grasped better. The methodology for that is to reveal myths as a sociocultural phenomenon. The existence of architectural myths arising from architectural discourses argued and examples of important architectural myths is identified. The causes of myths in architecture are determined in the context of frequently encountered linguistic or discursive structures. The reasons for the production of architectural myths are discussed at different levels of analysis: Architectural jargon, which is developed in a collective way and seen on a sentence scale; fallacies and frequent generic expressions, which are seen on sentence and text scale; generally accepted mediator role of the architects in the production process, which is seen on intertextual scale, are the reasons for an architectural myth to emerge. The four different myth samples are actually categorized according to the subject or concept that is argued currently. Titled as "Public area myth", which is formed by discourses on public space, causes the space itself turns into a myth. Architects tend to use the phrase "public area" as a smoke screen for failures or sometimes this phrase can be tool for over glorify the architectural design. "The competition myth" is discussed according to popularizing influence of architectural competitions. Architectural competitions are also can be tricky tool for promoting poor ideas, architects, or poor critical discourses. "Ideal architecture myth" is focused on architectural definitions specifically asserted by the idealization of architecture itself. In this myth, the arguments, which are almost obsessively about how architecture is actually art, are discussed. Finally, in the "Market conditions myth", the discourse that is shaped by the negativity of the architectural production environment and the process is discussed. In this myth, the phrase "market conditions" is argued in accordance of how architects are making an excuse for their role as a critical and mediator person. In this sense, it can be stated that the conceptualization of current architectural myths helps to understand how architecture is perceived, produced, defined and narrated. This research on architectural myths helps to criticize common situations in architectural production as well as understanding the architectural production environment. It is aimed to question the polyphony and critical direction of the discourses as well as to make the preliminary assumptions, fallacies, generic definitions and statements more visible and understandable. In other words, architectural myths provide a holistic view for current architectural environment in Turkey.