The objective of this research is to propose an analysis method of cognitive map that is expressive of interaction between architectural/urban space and human beings, in order to consider a design method of Human-Environment System, a type of system in which all the elements (including human beings) continue to interact with each other. In order to analyze the cognitive map, which is invisible, sketch map is used as externalized drawing of the cognitive map, based on the past researches. In this study, focusing on the meaning aspects of above-mentioned interactions, cognitive mapping process is understood as thinking process through signs based on the concept of Semiosis proposed by C.S.Peirce, who was an American semiotician. Therefore first of all, the cognitive map is modeled as a result from the interpretation of the architectural signs which represent the architectural/urban space using the concept of “architectural sign”, “university area”, and “cognitive map” following Peirce’s concept of “sign”, “object”, and “interpretant”. Then the “co-occurrence” between two co-occurring architectural signs is understood as the relation between the “sign” and “object.” Then, the cooccurrence types of all architectural signs pairs are classified into three categories based on Peirce’s concepts of “icon,” “index,” and “symbol.” Focusing on the relation between “sign” and “object” is the same as focusing on the semantic polysemy of “sign”. Thus, through this classification we focus on the semantic polysemy of architectural signs. On this basis, as preliminary study, “co-occurrency” of architectural signs is analyzed in order to understand semantic polysemy of architectural signs as follows. Sketch map experiments are conducted in 2 campuses in the Université de Franche-Comté following the experiments methodology of the past research. Geographic information database of architectural signs is then created using GIS. Based on the names of architectural signs written on the sketch maps by students, each architectural sign gets each geographic information. As the first step of analysis, main drawn architectural signs which represent their university area are understood classifying the architectural signs based on their size, distance from the university, function, and so on. Then using database, Jaccard indices of the pairs of architectural signs which drawn by at least 4 students are calculated, and co-occurrency networks are structured based on the Jaccard indices. Pearson’s correlation coefficients between Jaccard indices and quantitative valuables which shows architectural signs characteristics (height, size, function, etc.) are also calculated. Based on these evaluations the co-occurrency of architectural signs are assessed and analyzed. Through the analysis result, we found that architectural signs representing their university area differed depending on the characteristics of their university area. For example, in “Center City” campus, various cultural or commercial functions which are closely connected with our daily life represent the campus as “icon” or “symbol” of the campus. On the other hand, in “Bouloie” campus which is located far from the center city, such functions don’t work as architectural signs, but transportation functions represent the campus area. Through the analysis method presented here, we can analyze co-occurrence tendency of drawn elements on sketch maps focusing on their semantic polysemy as architectural sign set, and then architectural signs which represent architectural/urban area can be extracted. Then we show that the same architectural elements are analyzed as different meaning signs depending on from which meaning aspects we analyze, which indicates a way forward for presenting the method of quantitative evaluation of interaction between architectural/urban space and human beings considering the Human-Environment System design.
