Explanation on Role of Urban Signs in Promoting the Place Attachment with an Emphasis on Citizens Mental Image (Case Study: Sanandaj City)

Semiology and study of meaning and its effects on users is one of the new approaches that recently have become very popular in urban studies. Semiotics principles of cognitive science which is rooted in many cognitive sciences, relying on the concept of connotation causes the relationship between architectural spaces with the audience. So the different aspects of the syndrome of semantic, functional and emotional are considered simultaneously in the form of perceptual space, can step in and make space meaningful and create the sense of place for the audience. Emphasizing signs can increase the citizen›s mental image and legibility of city. This study examines the role of signs in the perception of architectural space and its role in improving semantic concepts of sense of place. Space is a phenomenon which human give meaning to it during his life and is dependent on it. Place attachment is an intersection point between physical, activity, and subjective components in space and it changes the space to the place by specific sensory and behavioral characteristics of people. Urban signs with different semantic, functional and physical dimensions perform an important role in improving the quality of urban spaces. In this paper, Sanandaj city is explored as a case study in terms of existence of signs, the effects of environmental meanings on different groups of residents and factors to increase sense of attachment to a place.