The Effect of Intertextuality on the Semantic Level of Architectural Form

Abstract

All creative fields, but especially architecture, are affected by intertextuality. To know how the notion of "intertextuality" affects the semantic sense of form in architecture, this study initially examines how it applies to literacy and then architecture. The objective is to determine how intertextuality affects architecture and how it could transmit a form's senses. The problem with intertextuality as an approach is that it doesn't provide designers with a clear path to follow. As a consequence, based on the idea of intertextuality in literacy, six steps are found from the theoretical framework to be steps of the intertextuality process in architecture. Case studies and a questionnaire are used for applying these steps. The study's results show that intertextuality has a significant impact and that each step of the intertextuality process intensely shows that the form's meaning might be changed from semantic to syntactic by the architect by including an intertextual idea in its design.