The Value of Manipulated Meanings in Urban Design and Architecture

The built environment can be regarded as a theatre set of signs which convey meanings and values. The developers and consumers of contemporary speculative developments are complicit in the process of defining the nature of such signs, as they are manifest in the built form of developments. It is argued that urban design theory and practice are frequently naive with regard to the process of defining and using images in what has been termed the commodification of the public realm. The characteristics of signs and sign value are examined, with an assessment of how signs contribute in the determination of the form and image of the public realm. Examples of development trends that rely partly on the interpretation and valorisation of such signs are then considered. The specific case of speculative housing development is then analysed. The results of a survey of 79 housing schemes are presented. In the survey the qualities of the built form were analysed and the value of signs was considered in the design of building groups; individual building forms and their decoration; and in associated meanings allied with the house product. It is concluded that speculative house developers manufacture signs to enhance sales, although the extent to which forms and meanings are manipulated in design and marketing does vary. Consumers purchase both use and sign values. The sign value allows them to express identity or attain status relative to a dynamic cultural code that guides interpretation. Urban design practices such as the townscape tradition appear to become stereotyped and trivialised by this process. It is argued that the consequences of this process should be understood and considered in critical urban design and architectural practices.