Athens Charter
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In architecture the Athens Charter (or 'Charte d'Athènes') was the result of the 1933 Congrès International d'Architecture Moderne. The proceedings went unpublished until 1942, when Le Corbusier published them in heavily edited form. Both the conference and the resulting document concentrated on "The Functional City".
CIAM had been founded in 1928 at a conference of 28 notable architects and planners in Switzerland to advance the cause of functionalism in architecture. The group re-assembled in Frankfurt am Main, Germany the following year to focus on the rational housing work of Ernst May, and met in 1930 in Brussels. The fourth CIAM meeting was to have been held in Moscow, but with the rejection of Le Corbusier's competition entry for the Palace of the Soviets (which indicated that the Soviets had abandoned functionalism), it was instead held onboard ship, the SS Patris II, which sailed from Marseilles to Athens.
As later documented by Le Corbusier, CIAM IV laid out a 95-point program for planning and construction of rational cities, addressing topics such as high-rise residential blocks, strict zoning, the separation of residential areas and transportation arteries, and the preservation of historic districts and buildings. The key underlying concept was the creation of independent zones for the four 'functions': living, working, recreation, and circulation.
These concepts were widely adopted by urban planners in their efforts to rebuild European cities following World War II, for instance Mart Stam's plans for postwar Dresden, and for the construction of public housing worldwide. But the Athens Charter was roundly criticized within the profession for its inflexible approach and its inhumane results, criticism which built up to Alison and Peter Smithson's break from CIAM in 1953 and their formation of Team X.
