Papers of BAS

Abstracting / Indexing

Papers of BAS Humanities and Social Sciences
Vol. 4, 2017, No 2

INSCRIPTIONS IN ARCHITECTURAL EXTERIORS IN THE 20TH CENTURY: STYLE, IMAGE, SEMANTICS, FUNCTIONS AND SYMBOLIC FEATURES

Sasha Lozanova, Stela Tasheva

Abstract. The paper focuses on the previously not studied (or insufficiently stud- ied) issues of appearance, location and significance of functional captions, inscriptions and labels on architectural exteriors in the 20th century.
The study does not examine inscriptions in cases of purely advertising concepts, nor their temporary solutions. The chosen samples reflect on relations and interactions between external architectural appearances and the respective lettering composition of forms and features (when they exist). The nature of the visual integrity between inscrip- tion and architecture also reveals their unique cultural positions, including main art traditions, popular stereotypes, tendencies, artistic and compositional styles and more.

The aim of the report is to offer a classification of the main types of links between captions and their respective buildings, and to relate them to key historical or contem- porary trends.

The used approach is interdisciplinary, based on the combined perspective of an architect and an art critic. The expected results are in the area of theory and history of architecture and arts.

Keywords: architecture, inscriptions, style, semantics, functions