Literature Studies 03 - Thought and image

In contrast to the empirical reading of architecture as tectonic object offered by the previous two literature studies, this book provided the notion of building as perceived entity that could embody suppositions and associations beyond its reality as a physical object.

This is relative to the individual who is perceiving the building and also to a collective through the idea of collective perception, a term articulated by the architect Aldo Rossi who was concerned with the notion of semiotics or signs embedded within what we perceive to be standard tectonic components of architectural design.

This suggests the possibly of an engagement with buildings that exists beyond the realms of practically applied. Could the practical tectonics of architecture really fundamentally impart a subliminal message or be manipulated to evoke emotion or is this a post applied notion that assumes that peoples perception will be constant and predictable, which of course it arguably isn't.