Structuralism is a movement in architecture and urban planning that evolved around the middle of the 20th century. It was a reaction to Rationalism's (CIAM-Functionalism) perceived lifeless expression of urban planning that ignored the identity of the inhabitants and urban forms.
Structuralism in a general sense is a mode of thought of the 20th century, which originated in linguistics. Other disciplines like anthropology, psychology, economy, philosophy and also art took on structuralist ideas and developed them further. An important role in the development of structuralism played Russian Formalism, also the School of Prague. Roland Barthes, a key figure of structuralist thought, argued that there was no complete structuralist philosophy but only a structuralist method.
Dutch architects of structuralism did studies in a similar way as Claude Lévi-Strauss (anthropology) and were interested in the principle "langue et parole" by Ferdinand de Saussure (linguistics), especially for the theme participation.
At the beginning of the general article Structuralism, the following explanations are noted: "Structuralism is a theoretical paradigm emphasizing that elements of culture must be understood in terms of their relationship to a larger, overarching system or structure." – Alternately, as summarized by philosopher Simon Blackburn: "Structuralism is the belief that phenomena of human life are not intelligible except through their interrelations. These relations constitute a structure, and behind local variations in the surface phenomena there are constant laws of abstract culture."
Structuralism and Postmodernism
In Europe, structuralism had a strong influence on the theoretical debate up to the end of the late 1960s. In its endeavor to offer an alternative to classical modern architecture, it was paralleled by New Brutalism. By 1975, structuralist philosophy lost its predominant position in the humanities due to important social and political changes. In architecture, its position was undermined by the increasing popularity of postmodern architecture promoted by authors such as Charles Jencks, Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown. Structuralist ideas kept up to inform the work of important architects during and after the postmodern era, which is estimated to have ended by 1995.
The theoretical concepts of structuralism in architecture were developed mainly in Europe and Japan, with important contributions of the United States and Canada. Contributions in architectural magazines by and his compilation of structuralist projects published in 1980 (Structuralism in Architecture and Urban Planning) introduced structuralism to a wider audience. Important assessments concerning structuralist theory in architecture have been made by Kenneth Frampton and .
In the 2010s, a new interest in structuralism in architecture can be detected, although it can be established that it is not paralleled by a revival of structuralism in the humanities. In 2011, a comprehensive scientific compilation of "structuralist activity" appeared in a publication called Structuralism Reloaded. In this extensive book, articles by 47 international authors were published about philosophical, historical, artistic and other relevant aspects. The following parts of this article are based on the current state of the publication Structuralism Reloaded.
A few months after publishing this book, the RIBA Institute in London discussed the new candidates for the RIBA Gold Medal in 2012. An actual question was: "Should the Venturis be given this year's RIBA Gold Medal?" Surprisingly enough, the RIBA-committee did not award the Venturis with their postmodernist view, and instead, gave Herman Hertzberger the prize for his structuralist architecture and theoretical contributions. The times had changed and a shift in emphasis had occurred. The comment of the former RIBA president Jack Pringle was: "The Royal Gold Medal, Britain's most prestigious award, should go to an architect that has taken us forward, not backwards." Today, postmodern architecture can be compared, to some degree with the architectural movement, Traditionalismus, in Europe.
Various movements and directions
The anthropologist, Claude Lévi-Strauss, remarked: "I do not believe that we can still speak of one structuralism. There were a lot of movements that claimed to be structuralist." This diversity can also be found in architecture. However, architectural structuralism has an autonomy that does not comply with all the principles of structuralism in human sciences. In architecture, the different directions have created different images. In this article two directions are discussed. Sometimes these occur in combination.