Summary of Function and Sign: The Semiotics of Architecture by Umberto Eco

The article expresses Umberto Eco's theory regarding the application of semiotics’ principles to the built environment and architecture.

According to the author, the accent in designing buildings, regardless of the purpose they serve, has to fall on increasing their functional role rather than on conferring them a communicative value. As an argument, he uses the example of the cave that has the function to provide shelter, this being the first thing people associate with its image.

However, in most cases, architecture also has the role of transmitting a strong message, using the elements a building incorporates as "manipulation instruments", to attract a great number of visitors inside. This is why it is very important to distinguish between functional and symbolic in architecture, Eco identifying the elements that define these notions.

In his opinion, functionality is related to the immediate, practical purpose the object or the building serves, while the message, the symbol it transmits is more complicated and subtle. In spite of this difference, there are cases when the same design element is used to express both the functional and the aesthetic value of a building, the Gothic arch being one of the most famous examples.

In order to make a clearer distinction between the primary and the secondary functions in building design, architectural codes were created. The author presents some of the most important categories of codes in architecture, such as "syntactic codes", "technical codes" and "semantic codes". Their characteristics are detailed and illustrated with many examples.

Eco also dedicates a section of the article to the presentation of the "mass communication" role architecture plays. In his opinion, the "discourse" design addresses to all categories of people, being less subtle and easier to understand than the message transmitted by a work of art. At the same time, the message sent by architecture has a low level of flexibility, gently but firmly convincing people to accept the elements it incorporates as they are.

Eco's conclusion is that the primary function of a structure has to be "variable", while its secondary functions must be "open".

Summary of Leon Battista Alberti's ON PAINTING

The treatise written by the Italian art theorist and architect Leon Battista Alberti explains and analyzes the techniques used in painting in the late 14^th and early 15^th century. Using the theory of perspective applied by Brunelleschi in designing the Dome of Florence as a starting point, the author presents the relation between this art that stimulates imagination and mathematics that addresses mainly to ration.

The importance of this work resides in the fact that, for the first time, it is explained how a tridimensional object can be represented on a bidimensional one, so that the viewer can perceive it as "the real thing", and not just as a simple image. To make himself understood, Alberti begins by making a concise presentation of some of the basic notions in painting and geometry, such as the point and the line.

One of the most important sections in the book is dedicated to the art of painting figures, presenting how the limbs or the head must be drawn in order for the person being painted not to appear encapsulated, but be represented as lively as possible. According to the author, one of the most important purposes painters must serve is to honor death, so that they can continue to live in the memory of the viewer.

Besides illustrating his theories with examples from classical Greek and Roman mythology, Alberti includes a series of 3D sketches in the book, explaining every detail of the techniques that have to be used in order to draw them. This makes his efforts even more laudable, because a painting treatise containing such representations is a premiere for the theory of art in the Middle Ages.

Last, but not least, the author provides a series of tips and tricks on how colors should be used for the painting to be appealing for the eye and address ration at the same time. The greatest thing about the principles he expresses is that some of them are applied even today, the moderate use of black and white as primary colors being one of them.