ABSTRACT
The search for meaning was the central project of post-modernism in architecture during the second half of the twentieth century. It was a reaction to the criticism that modern architecture had failed to be meaningful to the public. In order to find a way to restore meaning, architectural thinkers turned to the science of linguistics. The structure of language was seen as a relevant model for finding structure in architectural theory. Linguistics let to structuralist philosophy, with its belief in the importance of the underlying structure of things. Unfortunately the meaningful architecture that was attempted by post-modern architects failed to establish itself to the extent that the classical language of architecture had previously. It never gained a foothold. Despite a great deal of academic head scratching, the practitioner did not get the memos and therefore little that could be considered the new meaningful architecture was built. The post-modern architecture that did manage to be built now seems dated (Figure 78) and irrelevant, as the attention has moved to green architecture and a renewed focus on the pragmatic.
