Meaning and Place within Architecture.

The theory behind my thesis began with the exploration of meaning and place within architecture, the criticism of lack of meaning and absence of ‘place’ in architecture being a result of the modernist architectural movement.

What is meaningful architecture? Is it iconic? Iconic architecture is the perfect expression of a new global society devoid of intellectual investment and short on time. Today it is rarely created with people in mind. The term ‘iconic’ has changed over time, it used to recognise architecture that was beautiful in form, served a useful purpose and created a sense of place by contributing to the public realm. In today’s world to be iconic it needs to be new, but how to make the new when even the new is old?





Globalization and modernism facilitated the creation of meaningless places. Our world has become centred around mass production.

‘Modernist architecture just as the positivism that formed its foundation was as single layered and hierarchical as the damaged cultural tissue it claimed to erase’
(Lebbeus Woods)

Lebbeus Woods stated the modernist’s goal of ‘better’ was never reached. He described it as being too slavish in its worship of the machine. The architecture was inhuman and sterile and at the time it was tied to hierarchies of authority and it still is today. The question is, is this ‘meaningless’ a metaphor for something else, instead of being about architecture is it a metaphor for the people who inhabit it. Mass production took away meaning from peoples lives, they are becoming more like slaves or production machines. People are therefore oppressed. So then maybe the question is how do people escape this oppression and lack of life meaning?

Carys Fisher