Abstract

By radically altering accessibility to architectural images, the postcard has promoted the dissemination of diverse values and ideas that both mediate and are mediated by the cultural experience of architecture and place. This symbiotic process is explored by examining different types of architectural images in postcard form, and considering how they have been used and interpreted. Numerous cultural factors influencing the production of both the architecture and its image are discussed, highlighting how they promote particular conceptions of place. With ample illustrations, the postcard is seen as an amalgam of several functions: communication agent, propaganda vehicle, metaphor for place, object of desire and catalyst for memories. It is also the subject of individual interventions that produce the divergence between intended and received meanings and values. Exploring the postcard's role in the conception of place, its significance, its associations, its diverse meanings and contradictions, form the core of this study.