Structuralism

Structuralism is a mode of thinking and a method of analysis practiced in 20th-century

social sciences and humanities. Methodologically, it analyses large-scale systems by

examining the relations and functions of the smallest constituent elements of such

systems, which range from human languages and cultural practices to folktales and

literary texts.

In the field of linguistics the structuralist work of Ferdinand de Saussure, undertaken just

prior to World War I, long served as model and inspiration. Characteristic of structuralist

thinking, Saussure's linguistic inquiry was centred not on speech itself but on the

underlying rules and conventions enabling language to operate. In analysing the social or

collective dimension of language rather than individual speech, he pioneered and

promoted study of grammar rather than usage, rules rather than expressions, models

rather than data, langue (language) rather than parole (speech). Saussure was

interested in the infrastructure of language that is common to all speakers and that

functions on an unconscious level. His inquiry was concerned with deep structures

rather than surface phenomena and made no reference to historical evolution. (In

structuralist terminology, it was synchronic, existing now, rather than diachronic, existing

and changing over time.)

In the domain of anthropology and myth studies, the work done in the immediate post-

World War II period by Claude Levi-Strauss introduced structuralist principles to a wide

audience. Following the ideas of Saussure and of the Slavic linguists N. S. Trubetzkoy

and Roman Jakobson, Levi-Strauss specified four procedures basic to structuralism.

First, structural analysis examines unconscious infrastructures of cultural phenomena;

second, it regards the elements of infrastructures as "relational," not as independent

entities; third, it attends single-mindedly to system; and fourth, it propounds general laws

accounting for the underlying organizing patterns of phenomena.

In humanistic and literary studies, structuralism is applied most effectively in the field of

"narratology." This nascent discipline studies all narratives, whether or not they use

language: myths and legends, novels and news accounts, histories, relief sculptures and

stained-glass windows, pantomimes and psychological case studies. Using structuralist

methods and principles, narratologists analyse the systematic features and functions of

narratives, attempting to isolate a finite set of rules to account for the infinite set of real

and possible narratives. Starting in the 1960s, the French critic Roland Barthes and

several other French narratologists popularized the field, which has since become an

important method of analysis in the United States as well.

Because structuralism values deep structures over surface phenomena, it parallels, in

part, the views of Marx and Freud, both of whom were concerned with underlying

causes, unconscious motivations, and trans-personal forces, shifting attention away

from individual human consciousness and choice. Like Marxism and Freudianism,

therefore, structuralism furthers the ongoing modern diminution of the individual,

portraying the self largely as a construct and consequence of impersonal systems.

Individuals neither originate nor control the codes and conventions of their social

existence, mental life, or linguistic experience. As a result of its demotion of the person,

or subject, structuralism is widely regarded as "anti-humanistic."

Saussure envisaged a new discipline, a science of signs and sign systems that he

named semiology, and for which he believed structural linguistics could provide a

principal methodology. The American philosopher Charles Sanders Peirce, Saussure's

contemporary, sketched a similar science labeled semiotic. In 1961, Levi-Strauss situated

structural anthropology within the domain of "semiology." Increasingly, the terms

Semiology and Semiotics came to designate a field of study that analyses sign systems,

codes, and conventions of all kinds, from human to animal and sign languages, from the

jargon of fashion to the lexicon of food, from the rules of folk narrative to those of

phonological systems, from codes of architecture and medicine to the conventions of

myth and literature. Since the 1960’s the term semiotics has gradually replaced

structuralism, and the formation of the International Association for Semiotic Studies in the

1960s has solidified the trend.

As structuralist methodology expanded into the discipline of semiotics, critical reaction

occurred, particularly in France, leading to, for example Gilles Deleuze's "schizoanalysis,"

Jacques Derrida's Deconstruction, Michel Foucault's "genealogy," and Julia Kristeva's

"semanalysis." These critical schools were lumped together and labelled post-

structuralism in the United States.

Structuralism in Architecture - the Structuralist Diagram

The work of De Saussure in Linguistics and Levi-Strauss in anthropology led to the idea

of the existence of ‘deep structures’ in their respective fields of study. Levi-Strauss'

studies of traditional cultures drew attention to the built form of these cultures and drew

attention to their additive nature. A limited range of related components arranged in a

limited range of variations according to a particular set of rules.

Just as there seemed to be deep structures shaping the social patterns of these cultures

there seemed to be 'deep structures' defining the organisation of their traditional built

environment. This realisation made a deep impact on important European and north

American, architects of the time and one or two of them at least began to speculate on

the possible existence of deep structures linking late twentieth century western society

and its built environment with those of 'traditional' African and Asian cultures.

Historically something like structuralist thought first appeared in architecture via the CIAM

meetings of the late 1940’s and early 1950’s. The younger generation of architects then

emerging mounted an increasingly sharp critique of the technocratic, social

unresponsiveness of the architectural modernist mainstream at successive meetings of

CIAM [Congrés Internationale d’Architecture Moderne]. The decisive split between the old-

guard and the ‘young turks’, came with CIAM 9 held at Aix-en-Provence in 1953 when the

younger generation led by Alison and Peter Smithson and Aldo van Eyck, challenged the

four Functionalist categories of the Athens Charter. Dwelling, Work, Recreation and

Transportation. Instead of proffering an alternative set of abstractions, the Smithson’s,

van Eyck, Jacob Bakema, Georges Candilis, Shadrach Woods, John Voelcker and William

and Jill Howell searched for the structural principles of urban growth and for the next

significant unit above the family cell. Their dissatisfaction with the modified functionalism

of the old guard - with the idealism of le Corbusier, van Eesteren, Sert, Ernesto Rogers,

Alfred Roth, Kunio Mayekawa and Gropius - is reflected in their critical reaction to the

CIAM 8 report. They wrote : ‘… Man may readily identify himself with his own hearth, but

not easily with the town within which it is placed. ‘Belonging’ is a basic emotional need -

its associations are of the simplest order. From ‘belonging’ - identity - comes the

enriched sense of neighborliness. The short narrow street of the slum succeeds where

spacious redevelopment frequently fails. …’ With this they established a clear position

for themselves within the field based on the re-assertion of the importance of both the

social and symbolic aspects of the built environment.

The position was based on the assertion of the importance of vernacular values and

building form to social and psychological well-being. This manifested both in the form of

Nigel Henderson’s photos of London street life [exhibited at Aix-en-Provence by the

Smithson’s] and the Moroccan housing scheme presented by Georges Candilis [based on

vernacular housing types]. At CIAM 9 the Smithson’s and John Voelcker presented

designs for a range of housing types intended to address issues of community. Candilis

presented his Algerian mass-housing scheme. These concerns struck an instant chord

with van Eyck, who in the company of wife Hannie and friends had undertaken two trips

to the Sahara and published his photographs of the vernacular settlements he

encountered there.

Gerorges Candilis & ATBAT, Morrocan Housing project Exhibited at CIAM 8

This group of young tearaways was to become the core of Team X the successor to

CIAM which dissolved itself in bitterness and acrimony after the next and last Congress,

number 11 at Otterloo in Belgium.

The ‘Otterloo Circles’ a drawing which became effectively the manifesto of Team 10

The initial unity of purpose within Team 10 was short-lived. While they were still in the

process of disposing of the old-guard of CIAM their disparate interests caused an

ideological split between the Smithson’s and Bakema on the one hand and van Eyck on

the other. The Smithson’s were interested in mediating the alienating effects of universal

mobility via the creation of ‘place’ ironically [initially at least] through the use of mega-

structural housing blocks and elevated pedestrian decks. Van Eyck addressed himself to

issues that the majority of Team X would have preferred to have left unformulated. No

other Team X member seems to have been prepared to attack the alienating abstraction

of modern architecture.

The parallels between structuralist thought with its emphasis on complexity and

relationship and the Team 10 architects should be clear.

This interest in deep structures manifested itself in architecture in various ways. Firstly,

the observation of deep structures in language led to the establishment of a methodology

for studying them. This new science of semiology, later known as semiotics, was first

proposed by De Saussure early in the twentieth century. By the 1960’s the speculation

that there might also exist a corresponding language of architecture, the structure of

which might be uncovered and analysed, led to a semiotic analysis of the built

environment.

The most significant outcome of the application of structuralist thought [with its emphasis

on multiplicity and complexity] to architectural form was the emergence of post-modern

architecture. As Brent will devote time to this development I will confine myself to slightly

earlier structuralist manifestations in architecture.

One notable outcome of this investigation was the development of a ‘pattern Language’

approach to architectural form by the English mathematician turned architectural

theoretician Christopher Alexander.

Alexander’s group, the Centre for Environmental Structure, working from the University of

California at Berkeley produced a number of publications of a variety of Pattern

Languages for a range of urban configurations and architectural types. Notable were the

Group’s entry for the PREVI Lima housing competition [1967?], their Pattern Language for

‘Multi Service Centres’ and the three volumes simply titled a Pattern Language which

attempted to set out a range of general guidelines for urban form from the broadest to the

finest scale. This work produced a predictable backlash from architects and theoreticians

who perhaps unreasonably, resented what they saw as the prescriptive dimension to

this work and correctly [and more reasonably] noted its covert aesthetic dimension. This

might be characterised as a combination of medieval village and the hippy wood-butcher

reaction to the rampant materialism of late modernist society. This research petered out

by the late-seventies and resulted in few built projects on which to base an evaluation of

its effectiveness.

Illustrations from Center for Environmental Structure PREVI Lima Self Help Housing Competition

The more obvious result of structuralism in architecture came from the interest of a

number of architects who simply grafted onto the traditional architectural project a set of

formal gestures which simply symbolised the broader shift in thought in western society

which structuralism represented. In the broadest formal sense, the upshot of this was

architecture organised as more or less flexible arrangements of interchangeable but

generally clearly defined modules. Space was categorised and divided according to use

patterns and combined according to devised sets of rules. The components of

architectural form were generally clearly articulated - one could always tell, for example,

where column became beam and load bearing became non-load bearing.

Herman Hertzberger Diagoon Housing, Delft. Structuralist architecture - the components of architectural

form were generally clearly articulated.

The Dutch architect Aldo van Eyck who, for a while edited the influential magazine Forum

vigorously pursued his interest in the relationship between the social structures and the

built form of traditional cultures, making several field trips to the Dogon people of north

West Africa to study their indigenous shelter. He published and lectured very widely on

what he saw as the lessons for western architects and urban planners to learn from the

Dogon. I heard him lecture on this as an architecture student in Perth in 1966.

Aldo van Eyck – sketches & photographs of traditional Dogon Houses.

Here I might say a little about van Eyck and his work to set the scene. Van Eyck was

interested in the dwelling as a microcosmic analogy for the city and the city as a

macrocosmic analogy for the dwelling; so passages in dwellings were analogous to

streets and public squares in cities analogous to living rooms. Van Eyck was notable for

his philosphical and scientific interests. He read the philosophical works of Bergson and

Merleau-Ponty and was familiar with the scientific philosophies of Einstein, Bohr,

Heisenberg and Schrödinger. He felt affinity with the theories of Levi-Strauss but none

whatsoever with later structuralists.

Aldo van Eyck was born in Driebergen, Holland in 1918. He lived with his family in

Golders Green in London from October 1919 to July 1935. Educated in England at Prince

Alfred Primary School in Hampstead, London from 1924-32 and at Sidcot School in

Winscombe near Wells from 1932-35. He returned to Holland to study at the Royal

Academy of Visual Arts in the Hague 1935-38 He studied architecture at the

Eidgennössische Technische Hochschule Zurich from 1938-42. He remained in Zurich

until the end of the war where he married his fellow ex-student Hannie van Roojen in

1943. Children Tess [1945] and Quinten [1948]. While living in Zurich they met Carola

Giedion-Welcker who introduced them to the twentieth century art avant-garde. The Van

Eyck's moved to Amsterdam in 1946 where Aldo worked as an architectural designer in

the Town Planning section of the Amsterdam Public Works Department from 1946-51. He

participated in the COBRA movement 1948-51. From 1951-54 he lectured in Art History at

the Academy of Art and Industry in Enschede. From 1947 he was a member of the Dutch

CIAM group 'de 8 en opbouw', a participant in the Nagele project [1948-58] and Dutch

delegate at a string of international congresses from 1947-59. He commenced private

practice in partnership in 1951, in association with Theo Bosch 1971-2 and in association

with his wife Hannie from 1983 to his death in 1999. From 1951-66 he tutored in Interior

Design at the Institute for Applied Art Education in Amsterdam and from 1954-59 he

tutored in architectural design at the Academy of Architecture in Amsterdam. Aldo Van

Eyck co-founded "Team 10" with J. Bakema, G. Candilis, A. & P. Smithson and J. Voelcker

in 1954. Van Eyck lectured throughout Europe and northern America stressing the need

to reject Functionalism and attacking the lack of originality in most post-war Modernism.

Van Eyck's position as co-editor of the Dutch magazine Forum helped publicise the "Team

10" call for a return to humanism within architectural design. He co-edited Forum with

Apon, Bakema, Boon, Hardy, Hertzberger and Schrofer 1959-63 and 1967. He joined the

Delft Technical College as a professor in 1966 retiring in 1984. He lectured ceaselessly at

universities and congresses, twice visiting Australia; first for the Perth Architecture

Students Convention in May 1966 where he lectured together with Jacob Bakema, John

Voelcker and Buckminster-Fuller and in 1984 in Sydney and Melbourne for the Architects'

International Series.

Although van Eyck demanded an empirical search for original solutions in most of his

written works, he showed a distinct preference for Structuralist values within his

completed projects. He received the RIBA Royal Gold Medal in 1990 and died in 1998.

Among van Eycks important buildings from the period were:

Amsterdam Orphanage, at Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 1955 to 1960.

Temporary Sculpture Pavilion, at Sonsbeek, Netherlands, 1965 to 1966.

Wheels of Heaven Church, project, 1966.

Catholic Church for Pastor van Ars, at the Hague, Netherlands, 1963 to 1969.

PREVI Housing, at Lima, Peru, 1969 to 1972.

I will illustrate just three of these to give a feel for the look of this important re-working of

the modernist project.

Amsterdam Orphanage, at Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 1955 to 1960.

Discussion

This building made Van Eyck's reputation world-wide. It became the icon of the

structuralist - Team 10 revision of modernism. It was however not universally admired

with some people finding it more expressive of the idea of humanism than its actuality.

Sharp described it thus "… A cult building in the 1960s, Van Eyck's orphanage brought

to the surface an idiosyncratic interpretation of modern architectural ideas enriched by

pattern and forms and by balancing repetitive pavilions. Constructed in reinforced

concrete panels and glass bricks, it has undoubtedly worn badly. It now houses the

Berlage Institute. …"-Sharp, D.,. Twentieth Century Architecture: a Visual History. p240.

Norwich was kinder: "… Van Eyck's reputation as an original designer was enhanced by

the low-profile brick-built orphanage on a site in the Amsterdam suburbs. It has had an

influence on school buildings throughout the world. …" Norwich, J. J., [ed]. Great

Architecture of the World. p235.

Kultermann kinder still: " The most important personality in Holland is Aldo van

Eyck...whose orphanage in Amsterdam (1958-1960) became known all over the world,

due to the exemplary concept of this building. A home for 125 children of all ages was

created here, articulating a revolutionary synthesis in the consideration of the individual

and the group, inner and outer space, extended and small areas...Aldo van Eyck re-

adopted a previously formulated concept of L. B. Alberti, when realizing the house for

children in Amsterdam...the analogy of city and house: a small world within a large , a

large world within a small one, a house as a city, a city as a house, a home for children-

to create that was my goal. " -Udo Kultermann. Architecture in the 20th Century. p138.

The architect had this to say: "… The building was conceived as a configuration of

intermediary places clearly defined. This does not imply continual transition or endless

postponement with respect to place and occasion. On the contrary, it implies a break

away from the contemporary concept (call it sickness) of spatial continuity and the

tendency to erase every articulation between spaces, i.e., between outside and inside,

between one space and another. Instead, I tried to articulate the transition by means of

defined in-between places which induce simultaneous awareness of what is signified on

either …." Kultermann, U., Architecture in the 20th Century. p138.

Wheels of Heaven Church, [project], 1966.

The church was described by Joseph Rykwert who published it in Domus as a design

which "… exemplified an architecture that expressed itself with an eloquence which

moves the spectator by the clarity of a formal statement and through the shock of

recognition, a shock which ocurred 'when he has read an order in the building through

which he has walked and he has recognised this order as the plan of his being. …"

[Strauven, F., 'Aldo Van Eyck the Shape of Relativity', Architectura & Natura, 1998]

Catholic Church for Pastor van Ars

Van Eyck taught at Penn State for several years during this period along with Louis Kahn

whose tartan gridded plans and ideas of servant and served space paralleled the

development of Van Eyck's own architecture during his Team X days. Kahn who shared

much with van Eyck [but also differed in important ways, is important so it is necessary

to say something about him and his work before continuing.

Louis I. Kahn

Louis Kahn was born in Saarama, Estonia in 1901. His family emigrated to the U.S. in

1905. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a thorough grounding the

the Beaux Art school of architecture. During the 1920s and 1930s he worked as a

draughtsman and, later, as a head designer for several Philadelphia-based firms.

In 1925-26 Kahn acted as the Chief of Design for the Sesquicentennial Exhibition. During

the Depression, he was active in the design of public assisted housing. Beginning in 1935

Kahn worked with a series of partners, but from 1948 until his death in 1974, Kahn

worked alone. From 1947 to 1957 he was Design Critic and Professor of Architecture at

Yale University, after which he was Dean at the University of Pennsylvania.

Kahn's architecture is notable for its simple, platonic forms and compositions. Through the

use of brick and poured-in place concrete masonry, he developed a contemporary and

monumental architecture that maintained sympathy for the site. While rooted in the

International Style, Kahn's architecture was an amalgam of his Beaux-Arts education and

a personal aesthetic impulse to develop his own architectural forms. Considered one of

the foremost architects of the late twentieth century, Kahn received the AIA Gold Medal

in 1971 and the RIBA Gold Medal in 1972. He was elected a member of the American

Academy of Arts and Letters in 1971. He died in New York, in 1974.

Kahn’s many important buildings included:

Esherick House, at Chestnut Hill, Pennsylvania, 1959 to 1961.

Erdman Hall Dormitories, at Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, 1960 to 1965.

Exeter Library, at Exeter, New Hampshire, 1967 to 1972.

First Unitarian Church, at Rochester, New York, 1959 to 1967.

Institute of Public Administration, at Ahmedabad, India, 1963.

Kimbell Museum, at Fort Worth, Texas, 1967 to 1972.

National Assembly in Dacca, at Dacca, Bangladesh, 1962 to 1974.

Norman Fisher House, at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1960.

Richards Medical Center, at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1957 to 1961.

Salk Institute, at La Jolla, California, 1959 to 1966.

Trenton Bath House, at Trenton, New Jersey, 1954 to 1959.

University Art Center, at New Haven, Connecticut, 1951 to 1954.

Yale Center for British Art, at New Haven, Connecticut, 1969 to 1974.

Kimbell Museum, at Fort Worth, Texas, 1967 to 1972

Commentary

"… The Kimbell Art Museum by Louis Kahn is also a disciplined, coherent, and visually

clear statement, but here the aesthetics derive from the more classically oriented

sensiblity of its architect. It has an austere yet rich simplicity that comes from the

repetition of a vaultlike form, given a dull sheen from its lead-covered exterior, and a

beautifully articulated concrete structural frame with infill paneled walls of travertine. Its

classic sense of timelessness is ennobled by a reverence for material and detail. Its

interior form, bathed in a diffused natural light that enters the space via continuous

interior suspended screen and reflected downward off the curve of the vault. …" Paul

Heyer. American Architecture: Ideas and Ideologies in the Late Twentieth Century. p278-

279.

"...Louis Kahn...was perhaps the best among the architects of this century to illustrate

expressive honesty and integrity with regard to the coordination of materials with a total

architectural vision. …”

“… Louis Kahn's Kimbell Art museum in Fort Worth is a masterpiece in this respect. A

survey of the numerous studies of the building demonstrate a care for 'fit' that can only

be compared to the perfection of the classics, especially the Greek classics. Kahn put

the use of tools and machines to the ultimate architectonic end; with them he produced

buildings that were composites of parts working in total harmony among themselves and

with the whole. There is no Kahn building that does not give evidence of his genius in

the use of materials. He has achieved perfection in buildings with all sorts of budgetary

constraints, from the most modest to the monumental. …”

-Anthony C. Antoniades. Poetics of Architecture: Theory of Design. p220.

Details American Institute of Architects 25 Year Award, 1990

Salk Institute, La Jolla, California, 1959 to 1966

Commentary

“… In the laboratories the vertical ducts of the Richards Building have been turned on

their sides, housed in the hollows of spanning box girders and vented from huge hoods

at the flanks of the building. The pre-cast units of structure have thus continued to

become larger as the crane can lift them. Order, once an affair of repetitive crystals for

Kahn, is now felt in grand components, space-making themselves.... All utilities are now

directly channeled through the structure,...(the result being that) 'served' spaces, and

'servant' spaces are entirely integrated,...this 'meaningful order' was almost instantly

arrived at in Kahn's design. …”

-Vincent Scully, Jr.. Louis I. Kahn. p36-37.

“… Materials used are concrete, wood, marble and water. Concrete is left with exposed

joints and formwork markings. Teak and glass infill in the office and common room

walls....The laboratories may be characterized as the architecture of air cleanliness

and area adjustability. The architecture of the oak table and the rug is that of the

studies. …”

-Louis I. Kahn. from Heinz Ronner, with Sharad Jhaveri and Alessandro Vasella Louis I.

Kahn: Complete Works 1935-74. p164.165.

“… Louis Kahn's Salk Institute for Biological Studies on the Pacific coast near La Jolla

aspires within its own spirit to an order achieved through clarity, definition, and

consistency of application. It stands as a testament to Kahn's word, 'Order is. ' Two

parallel laboratories, each an uninterrupted 65- foot wide and 245-feet long and

encircled by a perimeter corridor, flank a central court. The support elements to these

totally flexible spaces are placed in a peripheral relationship to this corridor. They are

the studies and offices for scientist, fractured in profile and vertical in rhythm, which line

this central court, connected by bridges to the perimeter corridor and receiving views of

the ocean by virtue of exterior walls angles toward it. The idea of simple and strong; the

served space of laboratories where research is performed, the serving space of offices

where thought initiates....Clearly, in the institute at La Jolla, a new level of realization

and accomplishment is evident for this ides....The institute manifests beauty of mind

and act; of the resolution and articulation of the major elements of the building...being

what it wants to and needs to be, to the precise detail and execution of beautiful

concrete surfaces. Even the component of structure derives from the need to enclose

specific spaces, specifically and pertinently, rather than offer a general envelope within

which specific space might then be designated. The central court, as a typical Kahn-like

space of shimmering blue water, a band pointing toward the ocean epitomizing what

human endeavor can accomplish at one scale with geometric clarity and authoritative

but modest deliberation, to give to the scaleless sweep of the ocean, here the Pacific, a

poignant gesture. …”

-Paul Heyer. American Architecture: Ideas and Ideologies in the Late Twentieth Century.

p195.

Perhaps most important of Kahn’s works in the context of this lecture is the less well

known Trenton Bath House 1955-7. This design for a ritual cleansing facility for a Jewish

community in Trenton New Jersey, based on the earlier unbuilt Adler House (1954-5)

was seminal for Kahn, marking his break with the modernist framework exemplified by

Mies which had defined his earlier work. At the time Kahn commented that “… If the world

discovered me after I designed the Richards tower building, I discovered myself after

designing that little concrete block bath-house in Trenton. …” At the time of the design

of the Trenton bath-house Kahn commented in a section of his notebooks entitled

‘Compartmented Spaces’ “… Space made by a dome then divided by walls is not the

same space. … A room should be a constructed entity or an ordered segment of a

construction system. … Mies’ sensitivities with creation of space reacts to impose

structural order with little inspiration drawn from what a building ‘wants to be’. Corbusier

feels what a space wants to be, passes through order impatiently and hurries to form ;”

Kahn’s intent was clearly to give equal weight to order and form in his work. The

resonances between the thinking and buildings of Kahn and van Eyck are striking.

This impact of Kahn’s approach in general and the Trenton bath-house in particular, on

later architecture in Australia were profound.

Of similar persuasion was Van Eyck's country-man Hermann Hertzberger, and their

contemporary, the Dane Jørn Utzon who developed an architectural language based on

the careful articulation of each constituent element. Hertzberger was central as a

younger collaborator with van Eyck on the editorial team of the critical issues of FORUM

magazine between 1959 and 1961? Perhaps most important of Hertzberger’s many

buildings in this context is the famous Central Beheer Office block in Apeldoorn in Holland

constructed between 1967 and 1972.

Central Beheer Apeldoorn Holland 1967 – 72

Commentary

“… The idea...is that of a building as a sort of settlement, consisting of a larger number

of equal spatial units, like so many islands strung together. These spatial units

constitute the basic building blocks; they are comparatively small and can

accommodate the different programme components (or 'functions'), because their

dimensions as well as their form and spatial organization are geared to that purpose.

They are therefore polyvalent...

The basic requirements of an office building may well be simple enough in principle,

but it was this need for adaptability that led to the complexity of the commission.

Constant changes occur within the organization, thereby requiring frequent adjustments

to the size of the different departments. The building must be capable of

accommodating these internal forces, while the building as a whole must continue to

function in every respect and at all times. …” - Arnulf Lüchinger. Herman Hertzberger

Buildings and Projects. p87.

Structuralism in Australian ArchitectureIn Australia generally and Melbourne specifically, the most progressive architecture

seemed to mirror the structuralist shift although as far as I know it was never discussed

in those terms at the time. The re-awakening of interest in monumentality also propelled

architecture towards closed forms and the expression of mass and solidity.

The characteristic structuralist plans and forms of [especially] the early van Eyck of Team

X, Kahn and Hertzberger were strongly paralleled by contemporary Australian work.

Projects from the late 1960's and early 1970's of both Daryl Jackson [in Melbourne] and

John Andrews [in Sydney] clearly show traces of this influence as do the residential

projects of Bernard Joyce and Graeme Gunn in which one can trace a similar kit-of-

parts-variations-on-a-theme approach to designing and planning. I will discuss Joyce and

Gunn.

Bernard Joyce

Biography

Place of Birth: Chiswick London

Date of Birth: Jan 13th 1929

Higher Education: Regent Street Polytechnic and University of Melbourne

Qualifications: Dip. ARCH (Des) MELBOURNE

Affiliations:

Registered architect, 16 Sept 1955 F.R.A.I.A. A.P.A.M. Malaysia M.S.I.A.

Experience: P.W.D. Victoria Australia Stephenson & Turner Australia Westwood Sons &

Harrison England Hilton Wright England Bogle Banfield & Associates Pty Ltd Australia

Principal Bernard Joyce Associates AustraliaPrincipal Joyce Nankivell Associates

Australia, 1974-Principal Joyce Nankivell Associates Pty Ltd Australia, 1976-

Committees:

Council Member National Trust of Victoria 1966 – 1968 Committee Member RAIA Victorian

Chapter 1966 – 1968 Stramit Research Scholarship Award 1970

Lecture Experience Senior Lecturer Architectural Design, Interior Design RMIT 1961 –

1975 Guest Lecturer UNESCO Conference Melbourne 1972 Guest Lecturer Melbourne

University Guest Lecturer Design Institute of Australia 1972 Guest Lecturer Building

Centre Melbourne

Competition Awards: Housing: Age Small Homes Service Competition Section B, First

prize 1952 Womans Weekly Housing Competition National, First Prize 1954Herald Ideal

Home Competition, First prize 1956Tasmanian Timber Association Competition First Prize

1963Mason House Age Small Homes Service, Citation 1970International: Sydney

Opera House Competition, citation 1956 Perak Turf Club Racecourse Complex, Malaysia,

First Prize 1964Amsterdam Town Hall Holland, entry 1967Manila Low cost housing,

entry 1976Industrial Design 1954 Furniture Guild of Victoria Competition Bedroom

furniture 5 pieces, first prize Lounge furniture 5 pieces, first prize 1954NSW Forestry

Commision Competition Adjustable Chair System, Prize, 1956Awards: Stramit

Research Scholarship Award 1970Meritorious Lighting Award, 1968, Japanese

Restaurant Alfred Place RAIA Vic Chapter Citation, Housing Category 1972, Mason

House, Chavasse Street Brighton.

Bernard Joyce was born in London in 1929. He studied architecture at the Regent Street

Polytechnic before emigrating to Australia in 1950 and completing his studies at The

University of Melbourne. In 1958 while employed with Bogle Banfield and Associates he

was design architect for the distinguished Total Building in Russell Street in central

Melbourne. During his early period of practice in Melbourne Bernard Joyce received the

following awards for domestic projects. 1952 winner The Age Small Homes Service

competition, 1954 winner The Women's Weekly national Housing Competition, 1956

winner of The Herald Ideal Home competition, 1963 winner of the Tasmanian Timber Small

Homes Competition. In 1961 he commenced practice in partnership with William Nankivell a

fellow english architectural emigre who had studied at the Architectural Association. In

1964 Joyce - Nankivell won the competition for the Perak Turf Club competition for a new

race course complex in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. This was the breakthrough that the

practice needed to establish itself in Australia. The practice designed several

distinguished large commissions including the Australian Embassy complex in Kuala

Lumpur Malaysia [19??] and the new Sandown Race course facilities in Melbourne

[19??]. The residential work of the practice was considered ground-breaking for the

period. Characteristic of the residential work was its use of courtyards, a device

pioneered by Joyce - Nankivell, and the careful relationship of interior and exterior

spaces. The residential plans are generally very compact with large living spaces

opening onto courtyard gardens. At its peak the practice employed as many as 16 people

with offices in Melbourne and Kuala Lumpur. Joyce - Nankivell received an Honourable

mention in the competition for the Sydney Opera House. Bernard Joyce died in 1994.

Bernard Joyce Stansen House

The influence of structuralism is most strongly reflected in Bernard’s work in his

innumerable residential projects - The checquerboard courtyard planning of his suburban

villas, the careful division of internal space, the relatively closed building envelopes and

staccato repetition of building form link this work far more closely to Louis Kahn than to

Mies with whom it has become locally but carelessly fashionable to compare him.

The final architect I will mention here is Graeme Gunn. Born in Hamilton studied

architecture at RMTC but never completed the course - a registered architect but without

academic qualification - Gunn became for a decade mid 60’s to mid 70’s one of the most

influential design architects in Melbourne and also exterted a major influence on the

development of the city’s urban form via his co-authorship of the influential ‘A Mansion or

No House’ I will represent him with some images of two of his projects. The award

winning Molesworth Street town houses and his holiday house for David Yencken at

Baronda on the south coast of New South Wales.

Graeme Gunn - Yencken House Baronda

Structuralism and Architecture - Europe and North America

1. Broadbent, G., Bunt, R. & Jencks, C. [eds] Signs Symbols and Architecture, John

Wiley and sons 1980.

2. Lüchinger, A., Structuralism in Architecture and Urban Planning, Karl Krämer

verlag, Stuttgart 1981

3. van der Heuvel, Wim, J. A., Structuralism in Dutch Architecture, 1992

4. Strauven, F., Âldo van Eyck - the Shape of Relativity, Architectura & Natura,

Amsterdam, 1998.

5. Colquhoun, A., Post-modernism and Structuralism a Retrospective Glance, in

Colquhoun A., Modernity and the Classical Tradition, Architectural Essays 1980

- 1987 MIT Press, Cambridge Massachusetts 1989, or Assemblage 5, February

1988.

6. Hertzberger, H., Lessons for Students in Architecture, Rotterdam, Uitgiverij 010,

1991.

7. Frampton, K. Modern Architecture, A Critical History, Thames & Hudson, London

1980.

8. Alexander, C., The Timeless Way of Building, Oxford University Press, New

York 1979.

9. Alexander, C., et al, A Pattern Language, , Oxford University Press, New York

1977.

10. Alexander, C., et al, Houses Generated by Patterns, The Centre for Environmental

Structure, Berkeley, California 1971. [competition entry for the PREVI Lima

Housing Competition.

11. Alexander, C., et al, A Pattern Language which Generates Multi-Service Centers,

The Centre for Environmental Structure, Berkeley, California 1968

Structuralism and Architecture - Australia - General background

12. McKay, I., Mant, J., et al [eds] Living and Partly Living, - Housing in Australia,

Nelson [ca] 1975

13. Gunn, G., Yencken, D., Paterson, J., A Mansion or No House, Melbourne [ca] 1982

14. See also the web site Modern in Melbourne - Lectures”Tthe 60’s and 70’s” -

access RMIT Architecture Web page>People>Doug Evans>Homepage

Structuralism and Architecture - Further Reading for the committed and/or

multi-lingual - Europe and North America

"Otterlo Kongress NL - CIAM ´59 in Otterlo" O. Newman: Dokumente der modernen

Architektur, Band 1, Stuttgart 1961

"Forum" Zeitschrift der Strukturalisten und ehem. CIAM Beiträge von H.Herzberger, A.

van Eyck, B. Bakema, usw.: Architectura et Amicitia, Amsterdam, Hilversum seit 1947

"Kenzo Tange - Funktion, Struktur und Symbol,1966" Kenzo Tange: U. Kulturmann,

Zürich 1970

"Strukturalismus" Arnulf Lüchinger: Bauen + Wohnen Nr.5, München 1974 S.209-212

"Strukturalismus eine neue Strömung in der Architektur" u.a. Arnulf Lüchinger, Herman

Herzberger: Bauen + Wohnen Nr.1, München Januar 1976 , S.5-11; 21-24

" Geschichte der Architektur des 19. und 20. Jahrhundert" L. Benevolo "Die

holländischen Strukturalisten" P.Peters: München 1978

"Strukturalismus eine der Hauptströmungen unserer Zeit" J. Joedicke: Stuttart 1980

"Strukturalismus in Architektur und Städtebau" Arnulf Lüchinger: Karl Krämer Verlag,

Stuttgart 1981

"Structuralism in Dutch Architecture" Wim J. van Heuvel: Uitgeverij 010, Rotterdam

1992

"Aldo van Eyck" Francis Straufen: Meulenhoff bv, Amsterdam 1994

Hertzberger

"Herman Hertzberger - Bauten und Projekte, 1959-1986" Arnulf Lüchinger: Arch-Edition,

Den Haag

"Herman Herzberger 1959-1990" in Architecture and Urbanism (a+u), Tokyo 1991 April

Extra Edition

"Herman Herzberger " Herman van Bergeijk: Birkenhäuser Verlag, Basel, Boston, Berlin

1997 (Studiopaperback)

"Vom Bauen" Herman Herzberger: HAries Verlag, München 1995

"In Opposition zur Moderne" u.a. P.Eisenman, A.van Eyck, H.Herzberger: Vieweg,

Braunschweig Wiesbaden 1980

“New Structure und das Informelle“ von Cecil Balmond: Arch+ Nr.139/140 S.129 -

"Der architektonische Raum" Philippe Boudon: Birkenhäuser Verlag, Basel, Berlin,

Boston 1991

"Peter Eisenman" El Croquis Nr. 83: Madrid, 1997

"Peter Eisenman" Luca Galaforo: Birkenhäuser, Basel 1999

"Other Spaces - Die Affaire der Heterotopie" u.a. Michel Foucault: HDA Dokumente zur

Architektur 10, Haus der Architektur, Graz April 1998

Domus (Zeitschrift) Jan 2000 (u.a.Greg Lynn, Lars Spuybroek,...)

Biographies

Architects

Peter and Allison Smithson

Biography

Peter Smithson was born in Stockton-on-Tees, England in 1923. Allison Smithson was

born in Sheffield, England in 1928. Both studied at the University of Durham. They worked

with the LCC before joining forces as a design team.

Borrowing from a "bare bones" aesthetic dictated by Mies Van DerRohe, the team

generated a revolutionary architectural style based on technological minimalism. While the

idea of place acts as the central focus of all their designs, the minimalism directing their

designs - both in terms of form and material - has often placed their work within the

realms of Brutalist architecture.

While their buildings exhibited some key architectural ideas, the Smithsons gained most of

their recognition through their involvement with Team 10 and the overthrow of old CIAM

philosophies. In 1956, as members of the Independent Group, the Smithsons contributed

to the This is Tomorrow exhibition which was revised in 1990 for an ICA travelling

exhibition on their work.

James Stirling

Works

Engineering Building, at Leicester University, Leicester, England, 1959.

History Faculty Library, at Cambridge University, England, 1968 (1964?).

Neue Staatsgalerie, at Stuttgart, Germany, 1977 to 1983.

Biography

(b. Glasgow, Scotland 1926)

James Stirling was born in Glasgow, Scotland in 1926. From 1945 to 1950 he trained in

the Beaux Arts tradition at Liverpool University. He worked with Lyons, Israel & Ellis in

London for several years before he formed a partnership with James Gowan. Influenced

by the later designs of Le Corbusier and the theories of the Smithsons, Stirling and

Gowan produced several influential buildings which started a trend toward brick and

exposed concrete.

Stirling's early designs, especially for Cambridge and Oxford, often emphasized concept

over aesthetic and utilitarian needs. His later works appeared more formal due to their

influence from Post-Modern classicism. Criticized for his ability to continually alter his

fundamental architectural principles, Stirling uses an experimental design approach that

shows little commitment to one particular style.

Dennis Sharp. The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Architects and Architecture. New York:

Quatro Publishing, 1991. ISBN 0-8230-2539-X. NA40.I45. p148.

Details Recipient of the Pritzker Architecture Prize, 1981.