"Only with the language of the present can we get the past to speak." Sverre Fehn "A poet doesn't produce a different language for each poem. That's not necessary; he uses the same language, he uses even the same words. In music it is always the same instruments most of the time. I think that is the same in Architecture." Mies van der Rohe ' ...within this structure,... the elements 'keep one another in a state of equilibrium in accordance with fixed rules', and ' a language is a system in which the value of any one element depends on the simultaneous coexistence of all the others'." Ferdinand Saussure The connection of one building to another can be seen through a universal architectural language. Buildings are structured through the use of this language. Architecture communicates thoughts and ideas through the elements of building. The architect may show us things very subtly or dramatically using this language. Light, wind, material, color, water, even a wall are only a few of the elements of architectural discourse. Like letters form words and words form sentences, architectural elements are placed in order from which a possible meaning derived. The relationships between elements tell stories of different kinds. Within the structure of the architectural language the elements remain the same; their configuration, however, changes to reveal new and different meanings. Configuration is various; the use of these elements link past to present. Language A. Structure 1. Syntactic 2. Semantic 3. Pragmatic B. Elements 1. Letter 2. Word Architecture A. Structure 1. Syntactic 2. Semantic 3. Pragmatic B. Elements 1. Materials 2. Columns, walls, roof, floor, light, etc. / Master of Architecture

Un bâtiment ne parle pas, mais il communique d’une autre manière des messages qui sont le reflet des idées des architectes. Si l’architecture est un langage, si elle est une « écriture d’idées », alors comment rendre l’idée visible ? Comment peut-on, dans un sens métaphorique, faire parler un bâtiment ? Nous proposons alors une hypothèse analogique : « Si le bâtiment parlait alors il parlerait chinois ». Cette hypothèse oriente nos recherches vers l’étude des rapports entre langage architectural et langage naturel. À l’intérieur de ce champ interdisciplinaire, l’écriture graphique et idéographique chinoise devient notre objet référentiel. Les caractères chinois unifient la forme et le sens en même temps, ils proposent une figuration des idées fondée sur le système idéographique. De par sa logique combinatoire et ses procédés rhétoriques, le processus de figuration des caractères chinois est un processus de transformation de formes simples vers des formes complexes, passant de significations limitées à des significations riches. Ce processus de conception de caractères montre également une série de schèmes idéographiques qui pourrait constituer un système méthodologique de sémantisation pour la représentation architecturale. Ainsi, l'écriture idéographique et l'écriture architecturale, pris comme deux processus de figuration peuvent parallèlement se comparer, et l’écriture idéographique pourrait proposer un outil conceptuel pour l’écriture architecturale. Il s’agit d’examiner un nouveau modèle linguistique qui pourrait être utile pour la conception de l’architecture contemporaine. / A building does not speak, but communicates messages in a different way which comes from architects’ ideas. If architecture is a language, if it is a way to "write ideas", we would like to ask how can we make ideas visible and, metaphorically, how to make a building speak? So we propose a hypothesis based on analogy: "If the building spoke, it would speak Chinese." This hypothesis has guided our research towards the study of the relationship between architectural language and natural language: inside an interdisciplinary field mixing graphic and ideographic issue Chinese writing becomes our referential object. Chinese characters unify form and meaning at the same time, they are representations of ideas based on the ideographic system - a system "write the idea" - which more or less influenced all other Chinese arts and could represent the the most complex idea in the simplest way. By the combinatory logic and in the rhetorical manner, the process of figurations of Chinese characters was a process from simple forms to complex forms, from the limited significations to the rich significations. This design process also shows a series of ideographic patterns, which could be a methodological system of semantisation for the architectural representation. As a result, ideographic writing and architectural writing, as two processes of representation can be compared in a parallel way: ideographic writing could then provide a conceptual tool for architectural writing, constitute a new linguistic model for the design of contemporary architecture.

Esta pesquisa caracteriza-se como um estudo de análise gráfico-conceitual acerca da importância de processos de ação criadora referenciáveis à questão do movimento por meio de formas de representação e de exploração do espaço e do tempo na Arquitetura. Aborda a questão da representação na linguagem arquitetônica, entendida como meio de relação entre tempo e espaço. Investiga como o movimento sendo uma possível síntese desta equação pode ser percebido, representado e interpretado na geração de um projeto arquitetônico. Reflete sobre a mudança de paradigmas que caracterizam a transição dos meios de representação e identifica as expressões de movimento na linguagem arquitetônica, assim como novos parâmetros de raciocínio projetual por meio da análise de projetos e métodos projetivos analógicos e digitais de arquitetos, designers e artistas. Contextualiza as manifestações de clara relação da Arquitetura com a compreensão do espaço, tempo e movimento e propõe-se como base de reflexão comparativa entre a modernidade e a contemporaneidade. / This research is characterized as a study of graphconceptual analysis concerning to the importance of processes of creative action related to the subject of the movement by means of representation forms and exploration of space and time in the Architecture. It introduces the representation in the architectural language, understood as the relationship between time and space. It investigates how the movement - being a possible synthesis of this equation - can be noticed, represented and interpreted in the generation of an architectural project. The dissertation contemplates the change of paradigms which characterize the transition of the representational methods, from analogical to digital movement expressions in the architectural language, as well as new parameters of projetual reasoning by means of the analysis of projects of architects, designers and artists. It contextualizes the manifestations of clear relationships in Architecture within the understanding of space, time and movement as a basis of comparative reflection between the modernity and the contemporaneity.

Esta pesquisa caracteriza-se como um estudo de análise gráfico-conceitual acerca da importância de processos de ação criadora referenciáveis à questão do movimento por meio de formas de representação e de exploração do espaço e do tempo na Arquitetura. Aborda a questão da representação na linguagem arquitetônica, entendida como meio de relação entre tempo e espaço. Investiga como o movimento sendo uma possível síntese desta equação pode ser percebido, representado e interpretado na geração de um projeto arquitetônico. Reflete sobre a mudança de paradigmas que caracterizam a transição dos meios de representação e identifica as expressões de movimento na linguagem arquitetônica, assim como novos parâmetros de raciocínio projetual por meio da análise de projetos e métodos projetivos analógicos e digitais de arquitetos, designers e artistas. Contextualiza as manifestações de clara relação da Arquitetura com a compreensão do espaço, tempo e movimento e propõe-se como base de reflexão comparativa entre a modernidade e a contemporaneidade. / This research is characterized as a study of graphconceptual analysis concerning to the importance of processes of creative action related to the subject of the movement by means of representation forms and exploration of space and time in the Architecture. It introduces the representation in the architectural language, understood as the relationship between time and space. It investigates how the movement - being a possible synthesis of this equation - can be noticed, represented and interpreted in the generation of an architectural project. The dissertation contemplates the change of paradigms which characterize the transition of the representational methods, from analogical to digital movement expressions in the architectural language, as well as new parameters of projetual reasoning by means of the analysis of projects of architects, designers and artists. It contextualizes the manifestations of clear relationships in Architecture within the understanding of space, time and movement as a basis of comparative reflection between the modernity and the contemporaneity.

Centred on the architecture of the Winnipeg Civic Auditorium, this thesis tangentially investigates the presence of Anglo-Saxon race mindedness in a place civic planners call the metropolitan centre of North America (Watt, 1932). The introduction situates the building tangentially in Manitoba's history. By thinking about the Civic Auditorium in a tangential manner I aim to attack the linear and sequential framework found in Eurocentric historical accounts. Doing this, my thesis criticises western architectural history and welcomes Indigenous reinterpretations of civic planning and urban aesthetics. I aim to philosophically attack the informational rhetoric of the cultural turn (Fabian, 1983). My thesis participates in the production of a material turn discourse, wherein the important philosophical relationship between objects and occidental culture is demonstrated (Otter, 2010; Bennett & Joyce, 2010; Hamilton, 2013). It utilises the Civic Auditorium as a touch stone to demonstrate the important ways that architecture has agency in the production of racism. / February 2016