Charikleia Kritsotaki, "Cultural buildings - Landmarks The example of Heraklion ", Diploma Thesis Project, School of Architecture, Technical University of Crete, Chania, Greece, 2023
https://doi.org/10.26233/heallink.tuc.97715
This paper investigates the spatial and cultural significance of buildings dedicated to culture within the urban space. Specifically, the object of the research is the study of the cultural buildings of the city of Heraklion in order to draw conclusions / results regarding their role as landmarks. The research focuses on two parts, the first presents on the analysis of fundamental key/ basic definitions, such as culture and cultural landmark. The notion of landmark is investigated through the analysis of its definition. The above analysis focuses on the exploration of the theory of the urban planner Kevin Lynch, who through conducting empirical research attempted to determine people's perception of the urban landscape and their way of navigating it.An introduction is made to the history of the old city of Heraklion, covering the time frame from the Minoan period to modern times. The aim is to understand urban development over the centuries and to evaluate the cultural landmarks and monuments created by the folk in the old town of Heraklion.In the second part, the urban landscape of Heraklion, Crete, is used as acase study. It is examined whether the presented buildings act as landmarks within the city. The methodology followed focuses on the analysis of buildings based on the three scales of architectural design, the building, the urban and the human scale as experiential. The relationship of cultural buildings with the urban space is investigated and empirical reading is carried out to search for the relationship of buildings with it.Finally, conclusions are drawn regarding the distinguishing of the reasons for determining each cultural landmark building based on the three scales of architectural design.