ISABEL MARCOS
PhD Dynamic Semiotics

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    Post nº14 | How to analyse an urban representation from the 16th century?
    Isabel Marcos
    • Mar 4
    • 5 min

    Post nº14 | How to analyse an urban representation from the 16th century?

    #semiotics, #signification, #architecture, #urbanism In this post, we will look at an “iluminura (illuminated picture)” dated from the times of King Dom Manuel (1495-1521). The chosen iluminura embodies this epoch and represents a dynamic topology, which deploys diverse temporalities, as I will show later. A panoramic view of the city of Lisbon in the 16th century is illustrated in this “iluminura” and surrounded by an architectural decoration of a late Gothic Manuelino style
    22 views0 comments
    Post nº13 | What is a city?
    Isabel Marcos
    • Feb 18
    • 2 min

    Post nº13 | What is a city?

    #semiotics, #architecture, #signification, #urbanism The recurring image in all my blog posts is a map of the socio-cultural forces (also called abstract morphological structure). I studied this theme as part of my doctoral research (1996) on the emergence of the shape of the city of Lisbon, its morphogenesis. In other words, the abstract morphological structure corresponds to the distribution of statuses and institutions, of the different thematizations on the topological su
    12 views0 comments
    Post nº12 | How to understand the conflicts inscribed in the urban space?
    Isabel Marcos
    • Jan 14
    • 4 min

    Post nº12 | How to understand the conflicts inscribed in the urban space?

    #semiotics, #architecture, #signification, #urbanism Along the past blog publications, we covered a few tens of centuries, from 2000 BC up to the 12th century, and we become aware that this is the period necessary to stabilize the physico-symbolic values of a human settlement, such as: life / death; nature / culture; up / down; etc. These values are the root of any human settlement and, in general, they are expressed in space, in the form of places or monuments. It is a quest
    13 views0 comments
    Post nº11 | How are the symbolic values organised in Lisbon morphogenesis?
    Isabel Marcos
    • Dec 17, 2021
    • 2 min

    Post nº11 | How are the symbolic values organised in Lisbon morphogenesis?

    #semiotics, #architecture, #signification, #urbanism After the Reconquest, the central urban attractor was kept on the same place, and the Portuguese realms replaced those of the Arabic period. It had always been subdivided into two parties: the Political domain, the space of the military, which becomes the domain of royalty, is placed at the summit of São Jorge hill. The Religious domain, the space of the sacerdotal class, is placed on the slope of São Jorge hill, where the
    22 views0 comments
    Post nº10 | Why were anthropological values so important during the Arab period?
    Isabel Marcos
    • Nov 29, 2021
    • 2 min

    Post nº10 | Why were anthropological values so important during the Arab period?

    #semiotics, #architecture, #signification, #urbanism The Arab conquest of the Iberian Peninsula came after the 711s. The inhabitants of the conquered cities adopted the religion of the victors. This conversion to Islam offered slaves the possibility of freeing themselves. Islam, the Arabic language and culture, gained importance even if, simultaneously, there were revolts on the part of the Hispano-Roman populations allied with Christian lords. Conversion to Islam may explain
    19 views0 comments
    Post nº9 | How were European cities organized morphologically during barbarian invasions?
    Isabel Marcos
    • Nov 19, 2021
    • 3 min

    Post nº9 | How were European cities organized morphologically during barbarian invasions?

    #semiotics, #signification, #architecture, #urbanism The cult of the martyrs came with new types of organisation of space, which influenced the new urban organization of the Roman cities, especially in what regards to the place of the dead and the living. In his work on death, Philippe Ariès shows how “the dead will enter the cities from which they have been removed for millennia. It started, not so much with [Western] Christianity, but with the cult of martyrs of African des
    21 views0 comments
    Post nº8 | How were the first Roman cities organized morphologically?
    Isabel Marcos
    • Nov 5, 2021
    • 2 min

    Post nº8 | How were the first Roman cities organized morphologically?

    #semiotics, #signification, #architecture, #urbanism In my last post about the primitive voids that structured the territory, was mentioned that throughout history, the first step in the strategy of domination of each conquering people began with the occupation of "structuring voids", as a strategy for controlling the movements of the populations who inhabited them. Controlling the “structuring voids” meant controlling its population movements in space. In this line of though
    23 views0 comments
    Post nº7 | Why is a city born here and not elsewhere?
    Isabel Marcos
    • Oct 22, 2021
    • 3 min

    Post nº7 | Why is a city born here and not elsewhere?

    #semiotics, #signification, #architecture, #urbanism In the previous post, I stated that the act of building is not dissociated from that of investing one's environment with values. I have also presented my perspective on how the act of building is inextricably linked to the ecosystem where we build and to the meaning we attribute to the various places of the living environments. My research on urban morphogenesis taught me that most cities are born in a specific territory af
    18 views1 comment
    Post nº6 | Can we dissociate the act of building from its ecosystem?
    Isabel Marcos
    • Oct 8, 2021
    • 2 min

    Post nº6 | Can we dissociate the act of building from its ecosystem?

    #semiotics, #signification, #architecture, #urbanism At a time when we have forgotten our primordial connection to our ecosystem, the planet and therefore with the very basis of our experience. It seems to me essential to bring back to this second group of posts the question of the origins of territorial morphogenesis. Reading space is a primordial activity. The first men observed the signs of the surrounding environment so he could feed himself, independently if it was for t
    11 views0 comments
    Post nº5 | Why the Dynamic Semiotics of the Territory?
    Isabel Marcos
    • Sep 24, 2021
    • 2 min

    Post nº5 | Why the Dynamic Semiotics of the Territory?

    #semiotics, #signification, #architecture, #urbanism I’ve introduced some notions about Dynamic Semiotics in previous posts. This theory became the foundation for my work as a researcher since an early stage of my formation as architect. In the year before I finished my architectural studies at the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Lisbon I realized that there were no tools for interdisciplinary reading of the place of architectural intervention. At the time, I was
    30 views0 comments
    Post nº4 | Why is it important to read space and give it meaning?
    Isabel Marcos
    • Sep 10, 2021
    • 2 min

    Post nº4 | Why is it important to read space and give it meaning?

    #semiotics, #signification, #architecture, #urbanism The ability to read territorial forms, as well as to understand the “updates” of the meaning of these forms, allows us to correct problems of spatial inscription of collective identity, of urban conflicts, among many other issues. The genesis of form, or morphogenesis, is a “thickness” of meanings, which unfolds topologically. Morphogenesis allows us to access issues related to shape’s latency, such as: 1. Symbolic Form
    17 views0 comments
    Post nº3 | How do we access urban or territorial identity?
    Isabel Marcos
    • Aug 26, 2021
    • 2 min

    Post nº3 | How do we access urban or territorial identity?

    #semiotics, #signification, #architecture, #urbanism The territory is composed by a multitude of meanings organized in a multilayer, where we find a visible layer, which corresponds to the apparent forms of the territory – squares, streets, neighbourhoods, gardens, mountains; and a multitude of invisible layers that correspond to urban routes, public manifestations, territory morphologies, among many other activities that make visible the social, cultural, symbolic and physic
    26 views0 comments
    Post nº2 | Are the form of the territory and its meaning inseparable?
    Isabel Marcos
    • Aug 13, 2021
    • 1 min

    Post nº2 | Are the form of the territory and its meaning inseparable?

    #semiotics, #signification, #architecture, #urbanism To give meaning to what surrounds us is as natural as breathing! To access the meanings of a territory, inherent to the dynamics of spatial, social, cultural or symbolic functioning, is complex. This applies whether we consider the scale of architecture, the city, or the landscape. In this context, to read this complexity we need instruments, just as we need a cup or our hands to drink. Semiotics offers us reading instrumen
    22 views0 comments
    Post nº1 | Short on semiotics
    Isabel Marcos
    • Jul 30, 2021
    • 1 min

    Post nº1 | Short on semiotics

    #semiotics, #architecture, #signification I am a semiotician and therefore consultant in semiotics. I am also a researcher and university teacher on semiotic in architecture, urbanism, and communication. I am an author and I have participated in hundreds of conferences and seminars as speaker, key-note speaker, and organiser of well established international congresses. In order to explain what is semiotics, I can simply say that Semiotics is a toolbox for accessing meaning.
    88 views0 comments

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