A reading of the interested links between architecture and power from the Semiotics: Albert Speer´s case

Abstract

Power and architecture have established interested links over time, demanding the first one, for well versed will, the iconographic manifestation of this one that in turn represents in his different styles the ideological needed message. The nazi regime was this faustian alliance with a symbolic fascinating symbiosis in their coded language. Albert Speer, the brilliant architect of the visionary Führer, was caught in this atmosphere that cultivated idolatry to the charismatic leader within a totalizing vision. It served as effective instrument for the creation of the expressive architecture of the political to the point of achieving set in stone the word of power. We propose a look from semiotics as additional device of architectural analysis since not only the architecture is a functionality, but also expression, emotion, and, especially, communication. Speer reaches his greatest achievements to get in their architectural scenery a cohesive space in which the representation of absolute power becomes common emotional climax, destined to a public narcotized in the collective fascination. It´s the semiotics, even with their limitations in their need for continued restructuring for the decodifications, where the ideologies and the circumstance disturb the message, a successful analytical instrument, among others, applicable to the architectural field.