ABSTRACT
In architecture, elements often do more than one thing at once. This ability of an element to identify different places in a variety of ways is an essential feature and one of the most intriguing aspects of architectural design. It involves the mental processes of both recognition and creation in an interactive way – creation of one place leads to recognition of others – and comes into operation at all scales. It is something in which an architect can achieve great subtlety; but it can also cause problems when the consequences are unforeseen. Traditional architecture around the world is replete with examples of elements doing more than one thing. Architecture can express meanings, draw allusions, evoke metaphors, tell stories. The capacity of a work of architecture to be symbolic can lift it out of the pragmatic and experiential to the level of allegory, in which some message is communicated through association. Symbolism plays its part in the identification of place.
