The Campus and the Sense of Belonging to Place and Structure

Abstract

The research investigates the role of the Campus Landscape Design in achieving a complete semio-communicational structure that creates a continuous dialogue between the perceiver and the physical entity of the urban environment (through the unconscious recall of meanings and semiotic indexes implicit therein) and achieves individuals' sense of belonging to place , thereby emphasizing the human ,social and cultural role of the university and its vital contribution in building up the Whole Man .The absence of a comprehensive theoretical framework for the role of the Landscape Design in achieving a semio-communicational structure for the campus urban environment ,constitutes the main research problem.This problem arises from the lack of knowledge in the previous architectural literature in providing clear theoretical frame-work concerning the above mentioned role (as a result of literature concentration on fragmented and separate attributes) , as well as the absence of a dialectic and reasonable interrelation between architectural theories and scientific theories in the fields of Structuralism and Semiotics . In view of the problem under investigation , the aim of the present research is defined as arriving at the establishment of a comprehensive theoretical model , by which are determined the principles and mechanisms of the role of the Landscape Design in achieving a semio-communicational structure for the campus urban environment . Arriving at this aim requires the building of the theoretical framework in the light of the main research hypothesis, and eventually the extraction of the research conclusions and recommendations . The result of the research , led to clear mechanism for the role of landscape design in achieving a semio- communicational structure for the campus urban environment . This mechanism is formed by the reaction and simultaneity of the components of the three basic characteristics of place structure (cognitive , spatial and behavioral). By applying this mechanism , the designer will be able to create meaningful environments that achieve people’s sense of belonging to place .