The Figurative and the Phenomenal

‘What does this figure signify?’ – We ask the question by habit. Like this, our attitude toward a figure is tied to semantics. However, this attitude resulted from reductive application of standards of linguistics and semiotics to architectural forms. The question should be changed. It is required to be redirected from ‘what does it signify’ to ‘what does it do?’. When we get out of the stone well of semantics and move to practical and ethical realm, a more accurate understanding of the figure can be achieved. In this sense, Mario Botta’s the Church of Our Lady of the Rosary of Namyang seems fresh. The cathedral managed to construct a figure with a power which is vivid, moving, effective, attractive, and magical rather than with an activity on the horizon of shallow semantics. The