Semiotic Approaches to Urban Space

Edited by Federico Bellentani, Post-Doc Researcher, University of Turin, Italy, Mario Panico, Post-Doc Researcher, University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands and Lia Yoka, Associate Professor, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece

• Contents:Introduction to Semiotic Approaches to Urban Space 1Federico Bellentani, Mario Panico and Lia YokaPART I CONCEPTS1 The semiotics of settlement space 16Alexandros Ph. Lagopoulos2 Ten theses for a semiotic study of the city: notes,observations, proposals 32Gianfranco Marrone3 Devices for the representation and the spectacularisationof urban space: views, landscapes and logo-monuments 67Isabella Pezzini4 Urban landscape as text 82Olga Lavrenova5 The complexity of cities and the semiotic gaze: keepingthe ‘thickness’ of urban spaces 98Francesco MazzucchelliPART II MODELS6 Semiotic models of settlement space 111Alexandros Ph. Lagopoulos7 Dynamics of madrasa learning institutions in the Ayyubidand Mamluk capital cities 137Manar Hammad8 Mental models of urban space and their semiotic means 157Leonid Tchertov9 Reworking boundaries: from gates to the architecture of openness 174Charikleia Pantelidou10 Semiotic space for native biota in the city 192Riin Magnus, Tiit Remm and Kalevi KullPART III ACTIVATIONS11 Envisaging the city: roadmap for an interdisciplinarystudy of urban ‘facescapes’ 209Massimo Leone12 Spatial practices: convergences and dialogues betweensemiotics and urban planning 220Pierluigi Cervelli13 Resemiotisation of urban landscapes: relationalgeographies and signification processes in post-socialist cities 230Mariusz Czepczyński14 When schools intersect the everyday world of the city:educational space as a dialogical-transformative quality ofthe urban 244Kyriaki Tsoukala15 Urban activated public spaces in the contemporary city 257Nikolaos-Ion Terzoglou16 Metropoesis: semiotics, fictional cities and speculativeurban design 266Mattia Thibault, Vincenzo Idone Cassone and Gabriele FerriIndex 289

‘This is an important, innovative book that provides a toolbox for the study of the city as a semiotic object. Showcasing key contributions by semiotic scholars, the book unveils the different meanings of urban space, from the intentions of city planning to the reinterpretations of real users.’