Arnulf Lüchinger (born 22 February 1941 in St. Gallen) is a

Swiss Swiss most commonly refers to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Swiss may also refer to: Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina * Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses * Swiss Café, an old café located ...

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architect,

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and

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of architectural publications. He recognized

Structuralism Structuralism is an intellectual current and methodological approach, primarily in the social sciences, that interprets elements of human culture by way of their relationship to a broader system. It works to uncover the structural patterns t ...

in architecture as a new trend and launched it internationally.Francis Strauven
Dutch lecture "Structuralisme", University of Twente in Enschede, 2014. - Quote: 'Structuralism recognized and launched internationally by Lüchinger' (Video 04:20-05:00).

Kenneth Frampton Kenneth Brian Frampton (born 20 November 1930) is a British architect, critic and historian. He is regarded as one of the world's leading historians of modernist architecture and contemporary architecture. He is an Emeritus Professor of Archit ...

, "The Structural Regionalism of Herman Hertzberger", in ''Archis'' 12/1986, Amsterdam. - Quote p.7: 'Arnulf Lüchinger's laudable attempt to establish structuralism as a universal phenomenon.' Kenzo Tange, "My Architectural Autobiography", speech 2.10.1981 in Amsterdam, published in ''Plan'' 2/1982, Amsterdam. Introduction by Dutch architect

Aldo van Eyck Aldo van Eyck (; 16 March 1918 – 14 January 1999) was a Dutch architect. He was one of the most influential protagonists of the architectural movement Structuralism. Family He was born in Driebergen, Utrecht, a son of poet, critic, essayi ...

. Speech after two publications by Arnulf Lüchinger: article ''Dutch Structuralism'' (1977) in Japanese magazine ''A+U'' and book ''Structuralism'' (1980, international movement). - Quote Kenzo Tange: 'It was, I believe, around 1959 or at the beginning of the sixties that I began to think about what I was later to call structuralism.'Hubertus Adam, theme number " Herman Hertzberger", in ''Archithese'' 3/2023, , Zürich, pp. 40-45. - Quote p.40: 'Arnulf Lüchinger is credited with introducing the term structuralism into international architectural discourse. He graduated at the FHS St. Gallen in 1968 and at the

TU Delft The Delft University of Technology (TU Delft; ) is the oldest and largest Dutch public university, public Institute of technology, technical university, located in Delft, Netherlands. It specializes in engineering, technology, computing, design, a ...

in 1976.' Since 1970 he has lived with his family in

The Hague The Hague ( ) is the capital city of the South Holland province of the Netherlands. With a population of over half a million, it is the third-largest city in the Netherlands. Situated on the west coast facing the North Sea, The Hague is the c ...

Life

Architecture education

Arnulf Lüchinger attended the evening classes at the

University of Applied Sciences A vocational university or university of applied sciences (UAS), less commonly called a polytechnic university is an institution of higher education and increasingly research that provides applied professional education and grants academic de ...

in St. Gallen and graduated in 1968. During the studies he was involved in the interior restoration of the baroque cathedral in St. Gallen, which became a

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in 1983. An earlier member of his family, the musician , was responsible for the sacred music in the same cathedral. In 1969 Lüchinger left Switzerland and worked in the

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office in

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from 1969 to 1970, which was awarded the RIBA

Gold Medal A gold medal is a medal awarded for highest achievement in a non-military field. Its name derives from the use of at least a fraction of gold in form of plating or alloying in its manufacture. Since the eighteenth century, gold medals have b ...

in 1975. Here he came into contact with the international architecture scene and the published buildings by the Dutch architects

, Herman Hertzberger,

Piet Blom Piet Blom (; February 8, 1934 in Amsterdam – June 8, 1999 in Denmark) was a Dutch architect best known for his designs of the Bastille (1964–1969), a restaurant and student facility at the University of Twente, Enschede, the housing project ...

and

Jaap Bakema Jacob Berend "Jaap" Bakema (8 March 1914 – 20 February 1981) was a Dutch modernist architect. He is notable for design of public housing and involvement in the reconstruction of Rotterdam after the Second World War, and especially his work with ...

. Since his partner was from the Netherlands, he graduated in 1976 at the

Delft University of Technology The Delft University of Technology (TU Delft; ) is the oldest and largest Dutch public university, public Institute of technology, technical university, located in Delft, Netherlands. It specializes in engineering, technology, computing, design, a ...

, where Van Eyck, Hertzberger and Bakema were professors.

Launch of the Structuralism architectural trend

During the education at the

from 1971 to 1976 it became apparent that a new architectural trend was emerging in the Netherlands. The architectural historian Francis Strauven wrote about this in 2014: "Dutch structuralism as an architectural trend was recognized and launched internationally by the Swiss architect Arnulf Lüchinger, since 1974." In 2009, Tomas Valena organized the international symposium "Structuralism Reloaded" in

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

, at which Lüchinger was invited as a guest of honor. The book ''Structuralism Reloaded'' from this symposium was published in 2011 with 47 articles by international authors, including an article by Lüchinger.Arnulf Lüchinger
"Structuralism in Architecture and Urban Planning – Development in the Netherlands – Introduction of the Term", in book: Tomas Valena et al. (eds.), ''Structuralism Reloaded'', , Stuttgart-London 2011, pp. 87-95.

Architectural office and architectural publisher

Already during the education in

Delft Delft () is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, Netherlands. It is located between Rotterdam, to the southeast, ...

and afterwards Lüchinger worked freelance in

, in the combination of architecture office and architecture publisher (Arch-Edition). From his completed buildings, the two residential buildings in St. Gallenkappel received publicity in international magazines, in the German-language magazine 12/1977 and in the Japanese magazine ''Architecture and Urbanism'' 2/1979 with the title "Contemporary Houses of the World". In the 1990s, Lüchinger worked in Switzerland for a number of years, including as a partner and design architect in the Werner Künzler office in

Arbon Arbon is a historic town and a municipality and district capital of the district of Arbon in the canton of Thurgau in Switzerland. Arbon is located on the southern shore of Lake Constance, on a railway line between Konstanz/Romanshorn and ...

, with whom he had already cooperated in St. Gallen from 1965 to 1969.

Visual arts

In the foreword to the book ''Structuralism in Architecture and Urban Planning''German-Postwar-Modern, articles
book ''Structuralism'' - book ''Hertzberger''. Lüchinger wrote (according to the view of an architecture critic): "I came upon Structuralism as an architectural movement through an interest in the visual arts, in painting, sculpture and architecture. The built examples shown here are thus selected for their artistic quality as well as for the degree to which the ideological precepts of the new movement were realised." Lüchinger’s interest in fine arts is also expressed in the fact that he attended the evening classes at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in

and graduated in 2007. After the studies he was invited to set up a solo exhibition at the gallery "De Fietsenstalling" in The Hague. File:SGK-1.jpg, Two single-family houses in St. Gallenkappel 1974 File:SGK-2.jpg, North side File:SGK-3.jpg, Situation plan File:Flower-KABK-1.jpg, Solo exhibition after the KABK-art-education in

2008 File:SiAuS.gif,

international movement book 1980

Structuralism

Forty years after Lüchinger's first structuralism article, Francis Strauven wrote in 2014 about Lüchinger's contribution to the emergence of the new architectural trend. Strauven added that structuralism was included in the international literature by

, among others. When the new trend emerged, ETH-Library
Search terms: Lüchinger Strukturalismus, Joedicke Strukturalismus, Vindigni Strukturalismus, Candela structuralisme, etc. was also involved. In 1976 he commissioned Arnulf Lüchinger to write a book on structuralism after the theme number "Strukturalismus" in ''Bauen+Wohnen'' 1/1976 had been well received in the professional world. - With regard to the naming of the new trend, various terms already existed before 1974, but only sporadically and without reference to an international architectural movement. The new terms were published in the following languages: German 1958, Italian 1959, French 1964, Dutch 1969, English 1970, etc.

Publications (selection)

His publications include: * 1974 - Article: "Structuralism", in ''Bauen+Wohnen'' 5/1974, pp. 209–212, Zürich-Munich. About the architecture of Herman Hertzberger (competition projects town hall Valkenswaard and city hall Amsterdam, office building Centraal Beheer in Apeldoorn). From the Dutch architectural movement the first article entitled Structuralism in architecture magazines. * 1976 - Theme number: "Structuralism - A new trend in architecture", in ''Bauen+Wohnen'' 1/1976, Zürich-Munich (guest editor for this special edition). Dutch structuralism, international examples in the introduction. Quotations from Herman Hertzberger and Kenzo Tange. * 1977 - Article: "Dutch Structuralism - Contribution to a present-day architecture", in ''Architecture and Urbanism'' 3/1977, pp. 47–66, Tokyo. Article in special number on architecture by Herman Hertzberger. Toshio Nakamura was editor of Architecture and Urbanism (A+U). * 1980 - Book: ''Structuralism in Architecture and Urban Planning'', , 3 languages G+E+F, 144 pp., Karl Krämer Verlag Stuttgart, 1980. Structuralism as an international movement. Volume 14 of the Documents of Modern Architecture. Jürgen Joedicke was publisher of the Documents and editor of Bauen+Wohnen (B+W). * 1980 - Articles: Herman Hertzberger,

, John Habraken, in book: Muriel Emanuel d. ''Contemporary Architects I'', , St. James Press London-Detroit, 1980.

was added in ''Contemporary Architects III'', , of 1994. Dutch architects of structuralism. * 1987 - Book: ''Herman Hertzberger 1959-86 - Buildings and Projects'', , 3 languages G+E+F, 384 pp., Arch-Edition Den Haag 1987. Influential architect of structuralism, work overview of the first 27 years. See also Awards. * 2000 - Book: ''2-Komponenten-Bauweise'' (Two Components Approach), , double edition with ''Die Träger'' (''Supports'') by John Habraken, 112 pp., 90 images, Arch-Edition Den Haag, 2000. Participation in housing, partial aspect of structuralism. * 2011 - Article: "Structuralism in Architecture and Urban Planning - Developments in the Netherlands - Introduction of the Term", pp. 87–95, in book: Tomas Valena et al. (ed.), ''Structuralism Reloaded'', , edition Axel Menges, Stuttgart-London 2011. See also:

with interpretations by different authors. Publications (selection) by Lüchinger.Arnulf Lüchinger
structuralism publications.

Awards

, Gold Medal Award for architectural books and magazines. World Biennale of Architecture 1987, Sofia.

References

Videos

Bart Lootsma, German lecture "Strukturalismus-2"
University of Innsbruck, 2015. Bart Lootsma interprets Lüchinger’s contribution (Video Vimeo 14:00–23:00).
Francis Strauven, Dutch lecture "Structuralisme"
University of Twente Enschede, 2014. - Quote: 'Structuralism recognized and launched internationally by Lüchinger' (Video 04:20–05:00).

External links

Arnulf Lüchinger, studio for architecture and Arch-Edition *
RKD
Dutch Institute for Art History * {{DEFAULTSORT:Luchinger, Arnulf Swiss architects Swiss architecture writers Dutch architects Structuralists Delft University of Technology alumni 1941 births Living people