The Symbolic Dimension of Urban Space

Abstract

This article analyzes the symbolic dimension of urban space through the historical relationship between forms of spatial organization, mythical thought, and the experience of the sacred. Drawing on Carl Gustav Jung's ideas on the collective unconscious and archetypes, as well as Mircea Eliade's concepts of myth, hierophany, and sacred space, the author examines how different cultures have constructed and endowed their inhabited territories with meaning. The article explains that the cosmogonic myth functions as a model for human creations and that the foundation and organization of settlements and cities symbolically reproduce the creation of the cosmos. Within this framework, the center constitutes a privileged and sacred point around which temples, plazas, buildings, and other urban components are organized. This conception is expressed through geometric and archetypal configurations found across different cultures and historical periods, from Mesoamerican cities to Christian and colonial architecture. In contrast to this tradition, the development of modern industrial cities has fostered a pragmatic, fragmented, and homogeneous organization of space, weakening symbolic centrality and the sense of belonging. The author particularly highlights the displacement of historic urban centers by the rise of shopping malls and the homogenization of globalized cities. Finally, the article proposes reconsidering the symbolic archetypes that structure the human experience of space in order to understand the psychological and social consequences of the contemporary loss of meaning, community, and spatial orientation.