Groundwork for a Vitalistic Semiotics

In the essay, I focus on two concepts that can open phenomenological horizons of semiotic and architectural meaning: the concept of “lebensform” (form of life), as developed by Ludwig Wittgenstein, and the concept of “lebenswelt” (life-world), as expounded by Edmund Husserl. I argue that wholistic concepts such as the above can transform the disciplinary matrix of semiology into uncharted possibilities: a “vitalistic semiotics,” where architectural space and the living body as an attuned environmental field will form the center and groundwork of sign analysis.

Keywords: Lebensform, Lebenswelt, Spatial Meaning, Way of Life, Attuned Environmental Field, Vitalistic Semiotics.