Symbolic potential of place and its modelling for management needs

Abstract

Knowledge about the symbolic potential of the place (for example, city main square) and the form of presentation of such data is very important for better understanding of cultural memory of place. The article presents examples of symbolic potential descriptions of place using specific symbolic code sets. Code units consists from 1) names of identified easy recognizable objects forming a place and 2) cultural ideas, connotational characteristics of those objects. Some ideas appear as simple cultural connotations of certain objects and are easily identifiable. However, the fuller knowledge of local symbolic potential requires using of data that have more complex connotational structure. Such ideas encourage designers to comprehend the distinctive features of the place more deeply; also they are helping them to take into account personal existential experiences that are essential for the stimulating of original creative design solutions. Data about the place can help to manage it taking into account the symbolic potential only in case when the connotational characteristics are included into that data set. To ensure consensus among all relevant actors, data about place (city square, etc) expressed in codes with more complex connotational structures must be presented in explicit form (as some kind of semantic „reference book“) together with the arguments of their significance. Such codes would help align the positions of all actors involved in the management of certain place. Codes of this kind need to be defined in advance by making the appropriate research activities before and included in the legal documents regulating place management. The article discloses the model of symbolic potential of Kaunas Unity Square (Vienybės aikštė) and its closest environment, formed in period after regaining independence in 1918. In order to protect ourselves from possible unscrupulous modernizations of square, we always have to take into account the symbolic potential of this place when planning even the smallest changes of square. Research of symbolic potential of the place was conducted using theoretical methods: abstraction, analogy, generalization, reasoning (inductive, deductive, and abductive), synthesis. Moreover, the methods of phenomenology and semantic analysis were applied also.