Investigating the Place of Plato's Allegory (Plato's Cave) in Architectural Design through the Layered Semiotics Approach (Case Study: Sheikh Lotfollah Mosque and Sagrada Familia Church)

This Research has studied the reading of Sacred spaces through the layered semiotic approach based on the platonic ideal. This research seeks to answer the question of how it is possible to read the platonic ideal with a layered semiotic approach. It seems that religious architect have designed by relying on the ideas of Plato’s ideal and using the symbol of the tangible and intelligible world, and the platonic ideal can be felt in religious place. Therefor the purpose of this research is to prove the existence of signs of the platonic ideal in religious place based on layered semiotics. The research method of this research is descriptive-analytical with qualitative variables and based on layered semiotics and philosophical reasoning. For this purpose, a comparative comparison has been made between the Sheikh Lotfollah Mosque and the Sagrada Familia Church, and the main spaces of these two buildings have been read in the layers of the textual intertextuality of the code, as well as in the axis of morphological, semiotic, and phenomenological succession. The process of this research has reached the conclusion that the platonic theory of the like is manifested in both buildings. In the Sheikh Lotfollah, it is manifested in a focused and illuminating way, and in the Sagrada Familia, it is manifested in an expressionist and camp art way. And finally, in both buildings one can feel the connection with the upper world and the image of the Demiurges art based on the holiness and catharsis of existence.