Architects need to understand the textual nature of an image
13.11.2013
Architects work primarily with images, which is why the pictorial understanding that forms the basis of their work is not irrelevant.
To avoid various problems, architects should pay more attention to the fact that an image is open to many interpretations, says Architect Sari Tähtinen in her doctoral dissertation.
Tähtinen, who is defending her dissertation at the Aalto University School for Arts, Design and Architecture, presents a textual approach to architecture and architectural research. This means, for example, the understanding of images as textual, multidimensional structures.
‘Images and their use are considered to be an unambiguous and unproblematic way of communication. The prevailing representative concept of images works under the assumption that an image would disclose some kind of a commonly shared content about itself. This notion should be expanded’, Tähtinen says.
In her study Tähtinen stipulates that pictures are textual, layered structures which need interpretation and reading to be dealt with. The different backgrounds and education that people have influence how images are made and interpreted. For this reason, architects often encounter problems when others do not read their plans - that is, their images - in the same way that they do.
‘If architects were more in tune with the textual structure of images, we would have better instructions for participatory planning, for example, in which the planner should be able to work together with people other than experts of their own field’, Tähtinen suggests.
Help in visualising complicated projects
The concept of imagery put forward in the dissertation leans on the so-called textual approach, investigating the way things are linked with each other and how they form a certain kind of texture that is open to analysis. A significant part of the approach is context-based: how something appears depends on how and when it is observed.
According to Tähtinen, the textual approach offers new possibilities to an architect's work. As an example, she mentions the large-scale Euralille urban project, which can be difficult to approach and understand by itself.
‘In large and complex projects, such as Euralille, it is impossible to present everything as an image, as they do not form a work that can be easily identified and demarcated. Such projects are easier to visualise and control by seeking out different contact points from them and by reading them as a textual structure’, Tähtinen says.
Defence of dissertation
Architect Sari Tähtinen graduated from the Helsinki University of Technology in 1998. Alongside her further studies and her research work she has planned and implemented various visual materials at Open Design Oy for clients including Kone, Marimekko and the City of Espoo. Tähtinen has spoken at several seminars and conferences. She has also taught at Aalto University and the University of Helsinki.
The doctoral dissertation ‘Writing Architecture. Textual image practices – A textual approach in architectural research’ will be examined at the Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture on 22 November 2013 at 12.00 noon. Location: lecture hall E, Otakaari 1, Espoo. The opponent will be Assistant Professor Hélène Frichot of the Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm. Orders for the dissertation can be sent to the Online Bookstore of the School of Arts, Design and Architecture: books.aalto.fi, enquiries: artsbooks [at] aalto [dot] fi, tel. +358 50 313 7086.
Further information:
Architect Sari Tähtinen
Tel. +358 50 304 7434
sari.tahtinen [at] aalto [dot] fi