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A STUDY OF THE INFLUENCE OF
MASS MEDIA ADVERTISING ON
ARCHITECTURAL TASTE AND IMAGINATION,
WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO COMMUNICATING
THE MEANINGS QE^ARCHITECTURE
A DISSERTATION
SUBMITTED TO THE DEPARTMENT OF ARCHITECTURE OF THE
UNIVERSITY OF MORATUWA IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE
REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF
MASTER OF SCIENCE
IN
ARCHITECTURE
University of Moratuwa 79007
79007
BY S.R.CHANDRATILAKE 02 JANUARY 2003
79007 Real Elegance has no need for ornate frills. Rather than losing itself in life's facets and Contrasts, it bridges these with innate mystery. It embodies harmony and passion; and with a bold sweep it breaks through the cold geometry of an all, too sober world. Contents
Acknowledgements iv
List of illustrations v
Introduction 1
The Premise Justification Scope and Limitations Method of Study
CHAPTER ONE: ARCHITECTURE AS A MEDIUM OF COMMUNICATION
1.1 Architecture as an Art and the Purpose of Its Communication; 8
Language of Art, the Message Encoding and Distinction of Architecture from other forms
of Art.
1.1.1 Language of Art and Message Encoding 8
1.1.2 The Distinction of Architecture from other forms of Art 10
1.2 Formation of Meanings in Architecture; 11
Creating History of Meanings rather than History of Forms
1.3 Elements through which Architecture communicates 13
beyond Function...
1.3.1 The Communication of Function 13
1.3.2 The Communication of Architectural Message 14
i .4 Architecture as Mass Media; 16
An Evaluation of Marketing and Branding Potential of Architecture
1.4.1 The Mass Media Characters in Architecture 16
1.4.2 The Promotional Architecture 17
1.5 Concluding Remarks 20
CHAPTER TWO: HUMAN TASTE AND MASS MEDIA
2.1 The Mass Media and Its Significance; 21 Characteristics of Mass Communication and Media Saturation 2.1.1 Media Saturation 21
2.1.2 Characteristics of Mass Communication 22
2.2 Issues of Architecture, Taste and Imagination; 26
What is Human Taste and how they Change?
2.3 Sexual Dimension in the Communication of Architecture; 28
Hidden Women in Media, Influencing Architecture
2.4 The Governance of Architecture and Mass Media by the Economy; 32
Social Transformation and the Economy
2.5 Concluding Remarks 34
CHAPTER THREE: ARCHITECTURE AND MASS MEDIA ADVERTISING
3.1 The History of Mass Media Advertising in Architecture; 35
A Short History of Media's Affect and Effect on Architecture
3.2 Need for the Appearance of Architecture through Mass Media; 37
Need of Enhancing Good Architecture through Media
3.2.1 Background of the Need 37
3.2.2 Where it went wrong? 40
3.3 The Technology and Opportunities Available in Media; 42
The way, in which Architecture can be Presented
3.3.1 The Magazines 43
3.3.2 Architectural Graphics 44
3.3.3 The Television 46
3.3.4 Electronic Journals 47
3.3.5 The Internet 47
3.4 The Use of Mass Media to Communicate Architecture; 49
An Analysis of what to Advertise?
3.4.1 What is to be Advertised? 49
3.4.2 Use of Communication Theories in the Field of Architecture 52
3.4.2.1 Redundancy and Entropy 53
3.4.2.2 Narratives 54
3.5 Concluding Remarks 55
ii CHAPTER FOUR: CASE STUDY SITUATIONS
4.1 How Media reached People in terms of Taste and Imagination in
Architecture:
An Interview with a selected group based on a Questioner 56
4.2 Media Practice:
Production of a Documentary in Architecture for the Media Television 63
CHAPTER FIVE: CONCLUSION 69
BIBLIOGRAPHY 73
iii Acknowledgements
This dissertation would never have been possible without the invaluable support given by many to whom I am indebted and thus sincerely acknowledge.
My gratitude is extended to Prof. Lai Balasuriya, the Dean, Faculty of Architecture and Prof. Nimal De Silva, Head of Department of Architecture.
To my tutor Archt. Prasanna Kulatilake for his words of caution, encouragement in
my times of despair, his inclusive comments, patience and inspiration given to me.
My sincere thanks to are further extended to Archt. Shanthini Balasubramanium, Dr.
Rohinton Emmanual and Archt. Channa Daswatta for showing me way ahead in this
subject.
I am deeply indebted to Archt. Sujith Mohotti, Archt. Madura Prematilake, Mr.
Priyantha Fernando, Mr. Buddhi Keerthisena and specially Mr. Tissa De Seram and
the staff of the Media House, The open University of Sri Lanka and staff of the
library, University of Sri Jayawardenapura, all their help and appreciate the time and
effort extended to me in carrying out my case studies.
To my friends Rihaani, Rifka, Sitparan, Kumudu, Chaminda, Minthika, Rasika,
Nuwan and Dilum for the material support and whose words of encouragement
support were immeasurable.
Finally to my mother, two brothers and sister in law for their continued support and
help given in many ways, thank you for being there for me at all times.
iv List of illustrations
List of Figures
Figure 01: The Study
Figure 02: Method of Study
Figure 03: The production process of TV medium
Figure 04: Effectiveness of Mass Media Advertising in Architecture
List of Plates
Plate 1: The Statue of Malrin Monre, Wax Museum
Plate 2: The Kiss; Tate Gallery
Plate 3: The British Museum
Plate 4: The Cinnamon Hill House-Lunuganga; The Tropical Asian House
Plate 5: Modem House; AD, Nov-Dec 1998
Plate 6: Adobe house; Adobe, Photo by Michael Freeman
Plate 7: The House of Fashion-Colombo
Plate 8: The Royal Bakery; The Sri Lanka Architect, March-May 2001
Plate 9: Guggenheim Museum of Las Vegas; World Architecture, January 2002
Plate 10: An advertisement; iSh-fragments from an urbanscape, 2001
Plate 11: The audience; Media Unit, The Open University of Sri Lanka
Plate 12: An Advertisement; Management Accounting, October 1997
Plate 13: A modern living space; Modern House /y
Plate 14: The Lighthouse Hotel
Plate 15: The Monument; Modern House
Plate 16: An advertisement; hansgrohe "
Plate 17: An advertisement; Vista
Plate 18: An advertisement; hansgrohe
Plate 19: An advertisement; Studying The Media
Plate 20: 'The Built Int space 2001 '-exhibition stall Plate 21: A five room flat, iSh-fragments from an urbanscape, 2001
Plate 22: An architectural model
Plate 23: A sketch; Architects: the Noted and the Ignored
Plate 24: A medical centre at Nugegoda
Plate 25: All adds up for architects; World Architecture, October 2002
Plate 26: The Sydney Opera House
Plate 27: Carving publications
Plate 28: Architectural graphics; AD, Sep-Oct 1998
Plate 29: Architectural graphics
Plate 30: A television production at Media House, The Open University of Sri Lanka
Plate 31: The Internet
Plate 32: Nenendrof house; Modern House
Plate 33: An advertisement; World Architecture, July 2002
Plate 34: MAK-Cafe; Vienna, objects and rituals
Plate 35: An elite's house; Views of Sri Lanka
Plate 36: A sample advertisement; The Best in Dramatic Graphics
Plate 37: An informative graphic design; The Best in Dramatic Graphics
Plate 38: A television production; Media Unit, The Open University of Sri Lanka
Plate 39: Control room, Media House, The Open University of Sri Lanka
Plate 40: Narrators
Plate 41: The camera angle
Plate 42: The editing process of televisual product
Plate 43: A graphic of video editing
Plate 44: A graphic of production system tools
Plate 45: The story board A Study of the Influence of Mass Media Advertising on Architectural Taste and Imagination, with Special Reference to Communicating the Meanings of Architecture
Introduction
The Premise
Architecture is a medium of communication. It communicates emotive meanings to
observers as it is fundamentally an Art. The form and shaping are the key elements
through which architecture can be communicated. The form can be further divided
into; scale, proportion and spatial composition, where as shaping includes colour,
texture, elements such as fenestration etc.
From the eighteenth century onwards, the role of the designer in the process of
meaning formation has often been seen in terms of the model of communication.
The designer is compared to a speaker who has something to say, the building is
conceived as a statement and the clients, users and interpreters (collectively
observers) are regarded as constituting an audience.
The full appreciation and evaluation of quality and success of a design depends on
an understanding of its meaning and the way in which perceptual variables are used
to achieve and communicate it. It seems that, subject of meaning and its
communication in architecture should begin to receive considerable attention as it
was neglected for long time period. It is true to state that the interest of meaning
formation has continued and indeed grown since then, but less attention was paid to
communicate those meanings. As a result, people tend to assign meanings to those
which influenced by several factors.
Growth of mass communication since the late 1940's has been influencing people in
many ways both consciously and subconsciously, mean directly and indirectly.
These images are printed, painted, photographed and stencilled in an animated or
still form. Considered as shared by many these visual and auditory images have
become a set of common signs or symbols to which we can readily relate. Their
power derives from materialistic and commercial purposes.
1 A Study of the Influence of Mass Media Advertising on Architectural Taste and Imagination, with Special Reference to Communicating the Meanings of Architecture
Do people believe in these symbols and
base their choices upon them, or can
these symbols offer them the opportunity
to evaluate their intention, and as a result
make more intelligent choices?
Therefore it is important to evaluate the
effect of mass media in the field of
architecture and the magnitude of this
'media bias' in determination of 'taste' in
architecture. As many researches reveal Messags that mass media has strong effect upon •Moaningfur discourse the society; therefore this study focuses Rationalize on how media influence the society in
determination of their choices on
architecture and how the meaning of
architecture can be communicated Figure 1: The Study
through mass media to the society,
specially by advertising.
Justification
Human mind records what it sees in pictures, these images can be found in cultures
as their icons, an image formed in three dimensions. Throughout history these icons
expressed a culture's inner needs and values. They also can be objects connected
with the culture's myths and even religion. These can be found in supermarkets, on
magazine covers, billboards and television screens. They are the result of modern
man's need to create new environment in art and architecture; one, which can be
said to be open and changing constantly.
The media expends the space of experience, because it makes possible a greater
access to a variety of information and places; and on the other hand, it reduces the
2 A Study of the Influence of Mass Media Advertising on Architectural Taste and Imagination, with Special Reference to Communicating the Meanings of Architecture world by bringing closer to local dimensions the vastness of a world, previously
unreachable. It is basically the metaphor of the "Global Village", so that the space of
a mediated society is evaluated by distance, speed acceleration, expansion and
contraction.
The experience of space introduced by television for instance in the past four or five
decades and by most recent digital technology, is considerably different.
Carpignano (1998) refers this different as "space of representation" and a "space of
inhabitation". He borrows from Benjamin (1996), the suggestion that the experience
of mass media is more similar to the experience of architectural forms rather than to
the experience of a painting. It indicates that, it is easy to use mass media to
convince architecture to the public at large. In the contemporary world many
companies offer (or sell) architectural solutions through most familiar media (such
as TV and internet) to the general public. Bombarding nature of those
advertisements or commercials popularizes the particular brand name and product
images among the society. These commercials play an important role in meaning
formation in the contemporary world.
There are varieties of options that an architect could do in the process of meaning
formation "depending on the case and need"; means, for example when the
architect cannot build a wall of stone, he can build one with a spray of water; when
he wants to redirect flows and lines, he can do it with painting or projection; when he
needs a new spatiality, he could perhaps use fabrics, curtains, or if he really needs
them he can dig his spaces out of the earth or hang them in mid-air like a balloon.
Only thing is that he would have to communicate these possibilities to the client or to
the user.
Beauty is subjective and it depends on the users' level of perception. The time, the
observer looked at the particular object, the distance, the angle, the level of
illuminance and psychological condition etc, would dictate different levels of
perception. This leads to different emotional conditions, as different levels of
communication will achieve different perception levels. The designer or the creator
3 A Study of the Influence of Mass Media Advertising on Architectural Taste and Imagination, with Special Reference to Communicating the Meanings of Architecture of these objects might have different level of perception, which in terms most unlikely to coincide with the observers as mention in the premise. If he/she has the intention of communicating what he/she perceives or what was meant by him/her by such object, the ideal way in which that can be done is use of mass media.
Apart from psychological conditions, other factors can be equalized between the designer and the observer with the use of media to represent architecture. This might not represent hundred percent of accuracy. But it should not forget the fact that, thousands of words can be represented by a photograph or a short video clip.
Therefore this potential of media can be used to promote architecture; it is in a way use of mechanical eye to assist the real eye.
Therefore an analysis of this link between people, architecture and mass media would be helpful to bridge the gap between those three elements; where as fine connection of those elements would be in a position to uplift the quality of human life.
Scope and Limitations
For the cycle of communication to be complete one must also consider the stage of encoding-with precedes decoding and it is in a way symmetrical to it, means what the observer (client/user) receives largely coincide with meaning encoded by the emitter (the designer). If such a coincidence is not achieved because of errors in the emission, errors in the reception, noise in the channel, or other causes-emitter and receiver fail to communicate.
There is a problem in this view; that there is no way to ensure that designers
"intended to communicate". Although critics and interpreters interprets designer's product, there is no need them to be the same of what designer meant. Interpreters may believe that designers intended to communicate something, but it does not A Study of the Influence of Mass Media Advertising on Architectural Taste and Imagination, with Special Reference to Communicating the Meanings of Architecture prove that the designer intended to communicate. Designers may verbalize intended meaning, but only a few of them do. It has to accept that, when a designer discusses his work, he behaves as an interpreter, not as a designer.
There are some attempts to get around the problem by distinguishing 'primary' and
'secondary' meanings of the work of architecture. Eco (1968) stated, primary meanings are the ones the designer intended to communicate and secondary meanings are that appear at later times and beyond the designer's control. But this attempt merely separates the two parts of the problem and leaving the problem unsolved. It still remains unexplained, how one can ensure what are the primary meanings the designer intended to communicate. And how it is possible for people at later times to see the secondary meanings were not intended to be there. Further how one would know that the secondary meanings were not intended by the designer?
Therefore one might argue that it is not necessary to communicate primary
meanings of architecture to the general public. As mention above the full appreciation and evaluation of quality and success of a design depends on an
understanding of its meaning and the way in which perceptual variables are used to
achieve and communicate. Hence this document focuses only on architects'
intention of meaning formation and its communication.
For communication to the masses, mass media is used. Mass media comprise
three basic forms; visual, audio and audio-visual. The visual forms are all printed
media such as newspapers and magazines etc, where as audio form is the radio.
And film, video, TV and Internet come under the audio-visual forms. This broad
definition increases the complexity of this study. Therefore segregation of mass
media is necessary, considering their importance and relevance to the time and
architecture. TV, internet and magazines have equal importance in the field of
architecture, but it is true to state that internet and computer based presentations
are much relevant with the time that we are passing. But validity of magazines and
TV cannot be put down as they are the trend setters even in the present context.
5 A Study of the Influence of Mass Media Advertising on Architectural Taste and Imagination, with Special Reference to Communicating the Meanings of Architecture
Therefore this study will deal with those three form of media; magazines, TV and
Internet.
The printed media has history which goes back to 150 years, where as the TV is more than 50 years. According to this order Internet has the shortest history and it is the youngest in the media family. Although history of all these media has some
importance, the significant events took place and their relevance to this study will only be discussed in this document. At the same time there are some theories in which those printed media are based and most of them applicable to the electronic
media. Although analysing those theories in depth would benefit the architects, if so this study would leads to an analysis of mass media rather than a study of its
influences on architecture. But those media theories will be discussed as and when
necessary.
Both local and foreign examples of architecture have been used for necessary
illustrations. Nevertheless inadequacy of local examples imposed a limitation for the
study and on such occasions, foreign examples were taken.
As mention above, this study deals with the audio visual media such as TV and
Internet. The presentation of those audio visual media characteristics in a form of
two dimensional texts imposed some restrictions, especially in the final case study.
However photographs and illustrations were used to make fairly possible.
Method of the Study
This study will be on three phases, based on the theoretical aspects backed up by
two case studies. The first phase will be on 'architecture as a medium of
communication', and analysing the mass media characters in architecture.
The second phase will be on identifying the characters of mass media and the taste
and imagination of people on architecture within their social and economical
background.
6 4 A Study of the Influence of Mass Media Advertising on Architectural Taste and Imagination, with Special Reference to Communicating the Meanings of Architecture
The last phase would be the evaluation of how media influences on architecture, by
which establishes a path how architecture will reach people in a meaningful way
through mass media especially through advertising.
The two case studies will be looked at two practical angles. One would be a
research based on a questioner. And the other research would be based on a media
production using mass media theories, how architecture can communicate to
people through the mass media. Evaluation of these result one could predict the
successfulness of the study.
Chapter One Chapter Two
Communicational potential Characteristic of in Architecture Mass Media and Taste & imagnation of people on Mass Media Characteristic Architecture in Architecture
Analysis of Media Influences on Architecture
Chapter Three
Meaningful Communication of Architecture through Mass Media
V
Fig: 02 Method of Study
7