A semiological analysis of an Old City: Reading the Antalya Kaleici

Abstract

This paper brings together semiology and the urban by regarding the methodologies of key philosophers and cultural theorist of the twentieth century. Cultural theorist and analyst Roland Barthes is the first person who invited planners and architects to take a look on the possibilities of converging the spheres of semiology and urban thinking. In this paper after an overview of the current state of semiology, the language of the old city (Kaleici) of the Antalya was analyzed with Roland Barthes’s semiotic theory. Therefore, Kaleici was investigated on the micro and macro scale within this paper. The everyday functioning of the city is micro scale and deep investigation is the macro scale which tells a common language of the urban. Social life of the Kaleici was also analyzed to describe the concealed excitement generated through the activity of purchasing (commercial) and meeting (other people), both connected to urban existence expressed mostly by the youth in the city. On the other hand the revelation of the meaning of water which means the Mediterranean Sea to Kaleici was analyzed.