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The Significance of Architecture As The Making of Metaphors:

By Barie Fez-Barringten

www.bariefez-barringten.com

bariefezbarringten@gmail.com

The Significance of Architecture As The Making of Metaphors:

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2,098 words on double spaced sheets

What beyond the probability that it may be possible that urges us to believe the truth that
architecture is not only the making of metaphors; not only an art because it too makes
metaphors; but, that it is a metaphor. Architecture is a metaphor. Why is this true? Not
metaphorically, inference, nor deduction but a self evident reality. The following discussion
about identity, cues, mnemonics, vernacularism, archetypes, symbols, ii, reification and alienation
define the metaphors in architectural terms. Architecture explains the metaphor and metaphor
architecture. They are synonyms on the plain of organized ideas. They each enhance each other
and at best explain art. As art, the metaphor identifies the archetype and as long as we think we
exude metaphors. These metaphors are an applied art that become what we were, where
conceived and who we'd hope we'd be when "read".
Settlement patterns may be more important than the dwelling (Bedouin, Navaho, Jews):
"Scruffy" landscape identifies the higher-status group (Westchester England). The (1.1)House

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as a symbol of self : is where individual identity is paramount so that the psychological concept
of self-identity and self-esteem are linked (Western). The (1.1)Iroquois longhouse is the symbol of
the league not the individual. The Iroquois were the "people of the longhouse" where the
dwelling was metaphoric for the group but not the individual. Even today when they live in
separated houses they refer their identity back to the longhouse.
(1.1) A. Rapoport, "Identity and Environment: A cross- Cultural Perspective" J.S. Duncan,
"Housing and Identity"
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Australian Aborigines communicate their difference and therefore establish boundaries through
language, dress, hairstyles, etc. but not necessarily territory. Distinctiveness (identity) must be
communicated.
U.S. public housing projects is where often identification to place carries a Stigma.

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They can carry with them a negative identity and can be stereotyped leading to a process of
stigmatization.

Groups may identify themselves from others as: Nomads vs farmers; M'Buti

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pygmies vs. Bantu farmers; Jews vs Gentiles; Christians vs. Moslems; etc. (1.1)Sub-groups may
also identify themselves at various scales as: people of the black tent; Bedouin of tribe A, clan B;
Iroquois - the people of the longhouse; sex groups, for example men vs. women in traditional
cultures; extended family; nuclear family; clans; work or residential groups.

Individuals also

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do identify themselves in terms of roles as: priests, kings, architects, dentists, teachers, writers,
etc.
Architecture is a metaphor for who we are even if it is just a building or has very little thought
connected to the form, shape, space and scale. Its' very existence communicates and identifies us
to ourselves, others or amongst our own group.
The ethnocentric social comparison in a metaphor is based on one's own group (and its'

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standards) are taken as a point of reference as: "The people" (as human vs. other sub-humans);
Greeks vs. Barbarians, etc. These are all internal vs. external comparisons establishing
metaphors as barriers, boundaries and distinctions. Environments

communicate meanings

through the use of materials, vacant lots, litter and a low degree of maintenance. These can all be
read negatively and have a stigmatic effect. These are all to give examples that buildings, sitting,
locations and the general environment in which a work is placed is a metaphor.
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A. Rapoport,"Identity and Environment: A Cross- Cultural Perspective" J.S. Duncan,

The Significance of Architecture As The Making of Metaphors

"Housing and Identity"

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Identity is communicated :
1.1.1. Internally to oneself or group; or to
1.1.2. Others
The first often relies upon scale but can be expressed in other subtle environmental or
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non-environmental ways. The second establishes boundaries between them and others and
warrants greater clarity and legibility. In these the strength and redundancy of the message is
paramount. There is a distinction between the two where the first asserts specific identity
internally which to others may seem disorderly and have negative connotations. Metaphors
utilize contextual components exhibiting their character through composers whom we can know
by perceiving the internal identity.

If the identity of a group is known by outsiders who one can communicate membership
by known cues. If the identity is unknown then "place- identity" communicates "social-identity"
and becomes vitally important. Cues and metaphors communicate because they are experienced
directly and can be translated by the urge to be as placing something in the center, on the
periphery or askew can draw attention to a building. This unique placement with our attention to
it makes something be.
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A. Rapoport,"Identity and Environment: A Cross- Cultural Perspective

"J.S. Duncan, "Housing and Identity"

The Significance of Architecture As The Making of Metaphors

Environmental cues act as 1mnemonics, reminding both us and them about the nature of
the settings; their meanings; the behavior appropriate to them; and, hence about the identity of
the occupants of such settings. (Rapoport, "Definition of the situation"; Rapoport, Cultural
origins of settlements. Rapoport, "Vernacular architecture") Metaphors are mnemonical
instantly linking the common experience of its assembler with its reader. The reader remembers
commonalities with the metaphor maker's experience of the past and the time in which he
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perceived the cues.

Environmental cues expressed as metaphors are culture-specific which is why

communicating identity to oneself, internally, is much easier than doing so to others, externally.
The built environment is an agent to transmit culture. Culture being that which has already been
cultured or grown in us. Communicating becomes a confirmation process by which identity is
stabilized and co-dependency nurtured. It is people communicating to each other what they
already know. Not new information but existing information. The alien in a metaphor is
introduced in terms of the familiar. One takes on the identity of the other: the essence common to
both is the common understanding of readers and composers. The metaphor exudes their
common identity because of both its' strange and familiar components.
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mnemonics : mimneskes thai : to remember; intended to assist memory

The Significance of Architecture As The Making of Metaphors

The successful use of environmental elements in communicating the intended identity (the

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metaphor intended) depends on the cues being noticed (depending on the media, materials, scale,
etc.) and on the intended receivers being able first to notice and then to decode and understand
the codes. The metaphor talks about one thing (that is strange) in terms of another (that is
familiar).

In social circles, status for one may be achieved through group-oriented consumption

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such as by attending parties; while for another individualistic consumption of consumer goods
through "fancy housing". One may tout tradition, antiques, and heirlooms while the other
modernity, uniqueness and power. To both, architecture is a metaphor of their place in society.
The house for the modern group takes on greater importance because it is a fixed object where
new people enter in what is otherwise a changing world.

"The house, its' address and its'

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facade, as well as its' interior, affirm one's status in the eyes of strangers. Such objects which can
be regularly displayed but not consumed are the most useful".

"In collective groups, status is achieved primarily through group-oriented consumption

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and display. The house as a private, non-group object which cannot fulfil this role: hence it is rare
in such groups to see much architectural or artistic elaboration of the private house. Such
elaboration is common, however, in collective men's houses, for here the elaboration is for the
benefit of the group.
(1.2) J.S. Duncan "From containers of women to status symbol : The impact of social
structure on the meaning of the house".
The Significance of Architecture As The Making of Metaphors

Carl Jung's and Clare Cooper's ("The house as symbol of the self") belief is that their is a

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universal unconscious linking man to his primitive past, and in which are deposited certain basic
and timeless modes of psychic energy which are termed archetypes. A symbol is the
manifestation of the unconscious archetype in the here and now of space and time. The self is the
most basic of archetypes of which the "house" it its' frequent symbol. In any case the urge to
extrapolate beyond fine and applied art to architectural metaphors is based on the truths of
these observations and assumptions: that their seems to be a universal need for a "house"-form in
which the self and family unit can be "seen" as separate, unique, private and protected. The
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archetype and the symbol, themselves static are locked into a constant relationship. The
metaphor is a dynamic interfacing of both the "house" and the "reader" with both there cosmic
and parochial identity and relationship to all other things. Things that may be beyond their
context yet judged in the specific parochial environment. The "house" is a symbol of the
archetype of the self that has changed little through space and time.

"This place's undue

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restrictions and the variety of meanings that the home may have for any individual, and the
meaning, somehow becomes intrinsic to the object that functions as a symbol".

Objectivism is considered to be anthropologically necessary and refers to the process

by which man embodies his subjectivity in objects. It is inevitable that men and women will invest
objects of their making with qualities of themselves and consider them to be expressive of
themselves".
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(1.2) J.S. Duncan "From containers of women to status symbol: The impact of social
structure on the meaning of the house".
(1.3) G. (Gerry) Pratt, "The house as an expression of social worlds" in J.S. Duncan,
"Housing and Identity"

The Significance of Architecture As The Making of Metaphors

They are the metaphors of their metaphoric experience with the components of their context.
They are endowed with what man has become. The metaphor as an expression is concrete and
incarnates man's accomplishments. The person can know what he or she is because of the
material they project into their world. Without this material certainty what they know remains
obscure, private and fleeting : just a thought that comes and goes depending upon the person's
own effort to perpetuate. But once manifested the person can change his or her mind while the
object of their earlier thought monumentalizes their nature and the complexity of their history.

On the other hand the person can forget what he or she has created and allow it to act
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back upon them. They then become separated from the world as it's alien : they are alienated.

Reification is linked to alienation, for it is the process by which man, having forgotten

the human sources of products such as ideas, values or concrete objects, views them as objective
things (outside of themselves) and allows them to dominate. The created rules the creator.
Absurd but true. Metaphors can be our link with creativity or obscurity depending on the
composer. If the composer utilizes symbols, icons, language, forms, shapes, space and scale
impersonally and out of the person's own context the metaphors they create are imitations and as
"empty tin cans" communicate noise and dissonance. Empty experiences yield meaningless
metaphors.
(1.2) J.S. Duncan "From containers of women to status symbol: the impact of social
structure on the meaning of the house".
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G.Pratt "The house as an expression of social world"

in J.S. Duncan, "Housing and Identity"

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res : thing - more at real : to regard (something abstract) as material or concrete thing.
The Significance of Architecture As The Making of Metaphors

"Reifications occurs when an object is no longer considered to be a specific expression of

another's or one's own life but becomes instead a quality that seems to characterize the other's or
oneself in a typical and anonymous manner". The metaphor transforms,changes, carries-over,
bridges and transfers. "No longer is the object an expression of the person; the person is defined
as the embodiment of an abstract quality of which the object is a symbol. "Metametaphor
changes the metaphor to apply it broadly to wide and varied contexts. The concept whereby the
external world can be transformed into a personal archetype. The archetype then is the model
which can exude variations and be the residue of person's experience. The metaphors the person
creates are the remnants of their affair with the instruments, systems and subjects they
orchestrates.
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Bibliography:
1.

James S. Duncan, "Housing and Identity" (Cross-Cultural Perspectives) Groom Haln

Ltd 2-10 St. John's Road, London SW11; ISBN 0-7099-0322-7.

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AMOS Rapoport,"Identity and Environment: A Cross- Cultural Perspective".

(1.2)

J.S. Duncan "From containers of women to status symbol : The impact of

social structure on the meaning of the house".

(1.3)

Gerry Pratt, "The house as an expression of social worlds".

The Significance of Architecture As The Making of Metaphors