CIAM urbanism after the Athens charter

CIAM (Congrès Internationaux d’Architecture Moderne) was the most well-known organization of what is often referred to as the ‘Modern Movement’ in architecture. This article discusses the group’s urbanistic doctrines in light of the changing circumstances of its key members, primarily Le Corbusier, Walter Gropius, Sigfried Giedion, and José Luis Sert. After a brief survey of CIAM’s early years and its most famous manifesto, the Athens Charter (1933), this article focuses on the effects of Gropius and Sert’s American exile and examines the rise of differing conceptions within the organization about the validity of the ‘Functional City’ approach developed at the Fourth (Athens) Conference. In the conclusion there is a discussion of the rise of Team X and the dissolution of CIAM in the 1950s.