The Marketing of Meaning: Aesthetics Incorporated

The discussion in this paper focuses on the ways in which notions of meaning are customarily handled in architectural theory, especially notions of aesthetic meaning. The topic is considered in two contexts: that of ‘postmodern’ architecture during the late 1960s and the 1970s and that of ‘modern’ architecture in the two decades following World War 1. In the main, postmodern theorists have, we argue, sought to market prescriptive concepts concerning meaning; they have treated aesthetic meanings as commodities, as objects to be packaged for consumption. Though many advocates of the modern movement also dealt prescriptively with meaning, they anticipated an end to treating aesthetic meanings as marketable objects, as commodities. Whereas leading modernists challenged the dominant cultural ideas of their time, postmodern theorists embrace, incorporate such dominance. In exploring this viewpoint, we illustrate our contention that meanings are produced socially, that people endow buildings with meaning and that they do so in the context of specific social relationships.