Functionalism vs Structuralism

Charles Jenck's Evolutionary Tree of Architecture (2000)

It seems to me that many movements in modern art, design and architecture had counter-movements that opposed or counteracted the ideologies of another. An architectural movement itself is born in response to previous prominent ideas and in response to social economic factors. At the same time, the criticism and the opposition to the new ideas gives foundation to new ideas which although share bases with the opposition, but are still at conflict with each other. I see a family type hierarchical order in this relationship - the modernist ideologies and psychologies in marriage with social economic and regional factors are parents to new architectural movements which look like siblings - they have common foundation in the base ideas which gave birth to them however they oppose each other in handling of some areas of architectural ideas.

Le Corbusier's Five Points of Architecture - Eliinbar Sketches (2011)

In instance of one particular case, Structuralism movement was influenced by and contrasts the Functionalist ideas of notable architects Le Corbusier and Mies Van Der Rohe. Functionalism emphasized the functional elements of high-rise buildings such as overhangs, columns, roof gardens and open-space floor plans; and used standardized and prefabricated building materials such as reinforced concrete and steel. Prominent Dutch architects Aldo van Eyck and Herman Herzberger created Structuralism movement in reaction to to Functionalism and Rationalism in Dutch architecture. Structuralists labeled the Functional design as too uniform and large scale resulting in lifeless buildings and cities without identification of its inhabitants and urban forms. Dutch Structuralism embraced the relationship between social organisation and building structures based on unity, growth and change thus making open-ended structures using numerous repeated elements. There was also an emphasis of the relationship between the growing and repeating structural elements and the users which would create a growing community inside this structures with an open ended numbers. 

Piet Blom. Helmond's Cube Houses (1972)

Dutch architect Piet Blom held similar ideas about the relation between the user and architecture. His Cube houses neighborhood in Rotterdam is an exponent of Dutch Structuralism movement, with integrated structural elements facilitating multiple uses, future growth and change. Blom's architectural moto was "living under an urban roof", which defined the design of village like complexes in which every individual is part of the community and every space is part of a whole structure. This sense of community compliments the monastic culture of some of religious institutions, where building structure also defines community and multi-functionality and inhabitants’ individual participation. Although these complexes serve different purpose, nonetheless, monasteries are residencies that contain similar repeated structural elements and spaces that are linked together around courtyards. 

Piet Blom's concept images for Cube Houses (1977)

In this case the building is based on functionality of community in the design, however it is the form of the building that drives the functionality and it is not about "Less being more", but the ability to grow and multiply. At the same time as in the case for Functional design, the Structuralist facade do not involve decorations for aesthetic reasons, but use the basic pure geometric forms. So overall both architectural movements find common ground in use of pure geometric forms, but oppose in definition of function vs form. 

References
Graaf, E. d. (2001). Cube-Houses. Retrieved 10 14, 2012, from Kijkubos: http://www.kubuswoning.nl/introkubuseng.html
Hoek, B. v. (2011). Architectural movements in the Netherlands. Retrieved 10 14, 2012, from Architectuur.org: http://news.architectuur.org/movements.php
Lüchinger, A. (2011). Structuralism in Dutch Architecture. In Structuralism Reloaded - Rule-Based Design in Architecture (pp. 87-95). London: Stuttgart.
Images
Charles, Jenck's (2000).  Evolutionary Tree of Architecture. Retrieved from
https://www.flickr.com/photos/archidose/3088862107/in/gallery-67149161@N00-72157623255461185/ 
Piet Blom (1972) Helmond's Cube Houses. Retrieved from
http://en.nai.nl/collection/view_the_collection/item/_rp_kolom2-1_elementId/1_776832
Piet Blom (1977) Concept images for Cube Houses. Retrieved from
http://www.overlap.org/blog/13882322