From a Tompa Symbolic View

Abstract

Architecture is always symbolic, either by the intention of the designer or the client to express status, wealth, power, the sacred and the profane. Postmodernism has discussed this subject extensively. Even if the designer does not present a specific meaning or narrative intentionally, the architecture will always be “read” because the built environment always acts as the canvas upon which we all live our lives, and subsequently, the buildings carry meanings, memories and become part of every day’s “narrative”. During my travels in China, I encountered the Tompa Script used by Naxi people in Yunnan, Southern China. The Tompa Script is the last maintained and actively used pictographic script in the world. The Tompa script, unlike most written language systems, does not attempt to notate the writer’s specific meanings in detail. Its pictographic symbols and syntax act like “key cards” for a narrator, a traditional storyteller, who uses the script to tell a much richer orally, presented different stories. Guided by the script the narrator often switches perspective, from narrator to various actors and even assumes the role of the audience. There are many similarities between the Tompa script and Architecture. The way that simple geometric forms carry an abundance of meaning and narrative, the way we switch perspective when reading both Tompa scripts and architecture, etc. I was intrigued to explore how to apply the syntax of Tompa scripts in architectural narrative to find its meanings. Therefore, I titled the research into this topic: “From a Tompa Symbolic View.” This thesis is mainly about understanding the syntax and a way to document architectural narrative used as a way to touch the meanings of architecture.