Structuralism

Structuralism Poster — Pranav Maheshwari

What does structure in theory mean?

• The underlying organisation and relationships in a particular cultural or social context are called structure.
• Often these structures operate at an unconscious level and are hidden from an individual or society.

What is Structuralism?

• What structuralists meant by structuralism was focusing on the permanent structures or relationship between things and not the things themselves.
• Linguists also tried to understand this and used semiotics to depict it. One of the most famous semiotic depicting structures is the Ying & Yang diagram.

Ying & Yang

• The issue that came about was, that one person’s interpretation of let's say pipe, could be very different from another person's.
• Peter Eisenman’s House series was one such example. He experimented with cubes by creating House I and with each house, the complexity of the form increased but how can we quantify that? According to use, this could be one of the first forms he arrived at.

House III — Peter Eisenman

New Structuralism

• Social structures are complex, hence the building and city plans need to be complex buildings with interconnected, corridors, roads and spaces.
• To comprehend and design for these complex social masses, first structuralists found certain invariants and built on them to organise and design.
• Structuralism is connected to the web of the masses