Urban Space as a Minefield of Signs / Lo spazio urbano come miniera di segni

Every place is a minefield of signs. The external space of the city does not consist solely of stones, bricks, concrete or steel, but also of a multitude of elements that have to be extracted from the contextual system in which they are immersed in order to acquire a specific visual autonomy as the signs that they are, with their proper meaning. These signs contribute, with the architecture taken in its entirety, from the most significant elements such as monuments down to the most ordinary, such as common buildings, to define and characterize the identity of the place. Through the viewpoints offered by urban signs, interpreting the recurring elements and their sequential arrangement, we can read the space and visualize the constructive process as a collective and social activity. The classification of these anonymous signs, achieved through the comparison of elements belonging to the same category, sets off a process of interpretation that, by placing the individual exemplars on a plane of equivalence, eliminates any hierarchy among the elements they represent.