ABSTRACT
A theory of architectural description is necessarily distinct from a theory of what a work of architecture ought to be or mean. Within a philosophical context of phenomenology, Norberg-Schultz attempts to correlate semiotic distinctions with knowledge of perception and substantive aspects of architecture. Although just such a phenomenological-structuralist approach seems appropriate to the complexity of architectural experience, Norberg-Schultz falls short of offering a coherent theory of practical value to the technical description of architecture. A more extensively developed exposition of the theory and its practical application may be found in a recent Ph.D. dissertation. Fundamental concepts are identified and structured to provide a reference framework for the categorization of such information. The limited vocabulary of computational form, labels, lists and links between lists may be used to model the information identified with the six concepts of our categorical reference framework.
