Structuralism Reloaded. Rule-Based Design in Architecture and Urbanism

Originally developed in linguistics, the structuralist approach has been introduced as a scientific method in anthropology and other human sciences since the 1950s. In the 1960s and 1970s the double category of primary and secondary structure (langue and pa-role), essential to structuralism, in which the primary structure’s system of rules determines how the secondary elements are placed in relation to one another, also advanced to a leading ideology in the field of architecture and urban planning. From its development in the Netherlands and within the Team 10 circle of architects, structuralism in architecture quickly spread worldwide. Since the 1990s we have been witnessing a revival of structuralist tendencies in architecture. Whereas the structuralism of the 1970s encountered limits in complexity that were insurmountable at the time, today there is much to suggest that the return to structural thinking is causally connected to information technology, which has opened up new possibilities for dealing with complexity. This book is a collection of 47 articles by renowned authors in-cluding, among others, Roland Barthes, Koos Bosma, Jörg M. Gleiter, Herman Hertzberger, Arnulf Lüchinger, Winy Maas, Sylvain Malfroy, Hashim Sarkis, Fabian Scheurer, and Georges Teyssot.