We study an unsteady nonlinear fluid–structure interaction problem. We consider a Newtonian incompressible two-dimensional flow described by the Navier-Stokes equations set in an unknown domain depending on the displacement of a structure, which itself satisfies a linear wave equation or a linear beam equation. The fluid and the structure systems are coupled via interface conditions prescribing the continuity of the velocities at the fluid–structure interface and the action-reaction principle. We prove existence of a unique local-in-time strong solution. In the case of a damped beam this is an alternative proof (and a generalization) of the result that can be found in [19]. In the case of the wave equation or a beam equation with inertia of rotation, this is, to our knowledge the first result of existence of strong solutions for which no viscosity is added. One key point, is to use the fluid dissipation to control, in appropriate function spaces, the structure velocity.