Signs of Belonging: How Children Visualize the Imam Reza Shrine Through Semiotic and Psychological Lenses

This study explores the integration of Peircean semiotic frameworks into visual communication strategies for urban heritage preservation, focusing on the Imam Reza Holy Shrine in Mashhad, Iran. Employing qualitative methods and an interpretive approach, the research investigates how semiotics enhances cultural sustainability by analyzing visual materials—specifically, 100 hand-drawn images by primary school children aged 7–13. Peirce’s triadic model of representamen, object, and interpretant guides the exploration of how children, as cultural interpreters, perceive and reconstruct symbolic urban landmarks. These visual representations reveal how young minds process both external imagery (such as logos and photos) and internal cognitive-emotional frameworks, generating implicit cultural narratives.

To deepen the analysis, Glasser’s Choice Theory is applied, which posits that all behavior aims to satisfy five basic psychological needs: survival, love and belonging, power, freedom, and fun. Children’s drawings are thus interpreted not only as artistic outputs but as behavioral expressions embedded in emotional and cultural meaning. The Imam Reza Shrine becomes a psychologically and symbolically significant object within each child’s internal “quality world.”

Findings indicate that while children often reproduce recognizable architectural symbols such as domes and minarets, they frequently omit human figures and environmental context. These choices reflect a combination of mediated graphic simplification and personal reinterpretation. By merging semiotic and psychological perspectives, this study offers original insight into the communication of urban heritage and contributes to culturally responsive strategies in visual communication. It aims to foster more sustainable and emotionally meaningful connections between cultural narratives and younger generations.