Investigating the Role of Time Signs in Analyzing Architectural Works

In the face of an architectural place, the user’s sense is associated with spatial continuity (placeness) and sequence (temporality). For this, understanding the role of the concept of time in creating place dependence is of great importance, because a place is a situation that preserves a sequence of events to assist the user gain a full perception of his existence. In this connection, adapting architectural concepts to time semiotics basics to explore the concept of time in architecture represents an effective step to promote architectural analysis styles. This study uses the signification system analysis at one or more points in time, and one of the types of semiotics analysis of the syntagmatic dimension. Thus, it uses the role of time signs in spatial continuity and their relationships with architectural physical elements to study the effects of time patterns on architectural works as in an analytical method. According to the basics of semiotics as the selected approach of the study, understanding the role of time creation in architectural analyses is made by identifying the relationship between the concepts of time signs and traditional architectural examples. Theoretically, this study aimed to expand previous theories, fill theoretical gaps, and enrich the literature of the semiotics analysis of architectural works, thus practically helping understand how the concept of time was introduced to analyze architectural works using time sign rules. The conceptualization of time signs by the space fabric can, through analyzing place sign systems, add the concept of time to the realm of architectural analysis, which is carried out using the “conceptual analysis” of the transformation and sequence of the concept of time along with place.  Methodologically, the study used significant literature on architectural semiotics and collected and analyzed data by reviewing documentary and library studies. To organize data and develop a conceptual framework and expand the architecture literature, the descriptive-analytical method and logical reasoning strategies were used.