The Research of Public Place in the Context of Semiology: The Square of Eyüp Sultan in İstanbul

Squares are places containing, bringing together people from different classes and cultures, exhibiting the identity/culture of societies/individuals, and functioning as a meeting and trade area. In this context, as a public place, architectural structures surrounding the squares and the squares present intangible content to the observer, far from being a physical reality, include ceremonial forms of expression, various images and sign elements and multifaceted elements and they are important in terms of semiotics because they constitute values in the process of meaning. Although semiotic studies constitute a research area examined in the field of linguistics, in this article, semiotics are associated with public place, the architectural forms surrounding the public place are accepted as a language and from this point, the squares that constitute the focus point of the cities are evaluated as areas in which various symbols/images are produced. With this acceptance, Eyup Sultan square was evaluated in the context of semiotics and an original research has been created. The reason for determining the square as a research area; the square has a historical background and exists as a place that produces symbols/images. Square; It is a place covered with meaningful symbols, where the trade continues dynamically, functions as a religious visitor, and produces symbols/images with its religious/civil architectural presence. In context of the study, the theories of semiotics theorists Ferdinand de Saussure, Charles Sanders Peirce and Roland Barthes have been examined, Roland Barthes's approach regarding how the public place should be examined in the context of semiotics has been associated and determined as the method of the current research. Roland Barthes's semiology theory detonation and connotation principles have been taken as reference, the place has been examined through participatory observation, the data obtained have been associated with the historical background of the square/district and the public place literature, the relationship between the square and the indicator approach was evaluated.