Congrès International d'Architecture Moderne
Encyclopedia
The Congrès internationaux d'architecture moderne – CIAM (International Congresses of Modern Architecture) was an organization founded in 1928 and disbanded in 1959, responsible for a series of events and congresses arranged around the world by the most prominent architects of the time, with the objective of spreading the principles of the Modern Movement focusing in all the main domains of architecture (such as landscape, urbanism, industrial design, and many others).
in Switzerland, by a group of 28 European architects organized by Le Corbusier
, Hélène de Mandrot (owner of the castle), and Sigfried Giedion
(the first secretary-general). CIAM was one of many 20th century manifesto
s meant to advance the cause of "architecture as a social art".
Other founder members included Karl Moser
(first president), Hendrik Berlage
, Victor Bourgeois
, Pierre Chareau
, Sven Markelius
, Josef Frank
, Gabriel Guevrekian
, Max Ernst Haefeli, Hugo Häring
, Arnold Höchel, Huib Hoste, Pierre Jeanneret
(cousin of Le Corbusier), André Lurçat
, Ernst May
, Fernando García Mercadal, Hannes Meyer
, Werner M. Moser
, Carlo Enrico Rava, Gerrit Rietveld
, Alberto Sartoris, Hans Schmidt, Mart Stam
, Rudolf Steiger, Szymon Syrkus, Henri-Robert Von der Mühll, and Juan de Zavala. The Soviet delegates were to be El Lissitzky
, Nikolai Kolli
and Moisei Ginzburg
, although at the Sarraz conference they were unable to obtain visas.
Other later members included Alvar Aalto
, Uno Åhrén
, Louis Herman De Koninck
(1929) and Fred Forbát
. In 1941, Harwell Hamilton Harris
was chosen as secretary of the American branch of CIAM, which was the Chapter for Relief and Post War Planning, founded in New York City
.
.
The fourth CIAM meeting in 1933 was to have been held in Moscow. The rejection of Le Corbusier's competition entry for the Palace of the Soviets, a watershed moment and an indication that the Soviets had abandoned CIAM's principles, changed those plans. Instead it was held onboard ship, the SS Patris II, which sailed from Marseille
to Athens
.
Here the group discussed concentrated on principles of "The Functional City", which broadened CIAM's scope from architecture into urban planning. Based on an analysis of thirty-three cities, CIAM proposed that the social problems faced by cities could be resolved by strict functional segregation, and the distribution of the population into tall apartment blocks at widely spaced intervals. These proceedings went unpublished from 1933 until 1942, when Le Corbusier, acting alone, published them in heavily edited form as the "Athens Charter
."
As CIAM members traveled worldwide after the war, many of its ideas spread outside Europe, notably to the USA. The city planning ideas were adopted in the rebuilding of Europe following World War II
, although by then some CIAM members had their doubts. Alison and Peter Smithson
were chief among the dissenters. When implemented in the postwar period, many of these ideas were compromised by tight financial constraints, poor understanding of the concepts, or popular resistance. Mart Stam
's replanning of postwar Dresden in the CIAM formula was rejected by its citizens as an "all-out attack on the city."
The CIAM organisation disbanded in 1959 as the views of the members diverged. Le Corbusier had left in 1955, objecting to the increasing use of English during meetings.
For a reform of CIAM, the group Team 10 was active from 1953 onwards, and two different movements emerged from it: the New Brutalism of the English members (Alison and Peter Smithson) and the Structuralism
of the Dutch members (Aldo van Eyck
and Jacob B. Bakema
).
Formation and membership
The International Congresses of Modern Architecture (CIAM) was founded in June 1928, at the Chateau de la SarrazLa Sarraz
La Sarraz is a municipality of the canton of Vaud in Switzerland, located in the district of Morges.-Geography:La Sarraz has an area, , of . Of this area, or 48.2% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 39.0% is forested...
in Switzerland, by a group of 28 European architects organized by Le Corbusier
Le Corbusier
Charles-Édouard Jeanneret, better known as Le Corbusier , was a Swiss-born French architect, designer, urbanist, writer and painter, famous for being one of the pioneers of what now is called modern architecture. He was born in Switzerland and became a French citizen in 1930...
, Hélène de Mandrot (owner of the castle), and Sigfried Giedion
Sigfried Giedion
Sigfried Giedion was a Bohemia-born Swiss historian and critic of architecture....
(the first secretary-general). CIAM was one of many 20th century manifesto
Manifesto
A manifesto is a public declaration of principles and intentions, often political in nature. Manifestos relating to religious belief are generally referred to as creeds. Manifestos may also be life stance-related.-Etymology:...
s meant to advance the cause of "architecture as a social art".
Other founder members included Karl Moser
Karl Moser
Karl Moser was an architect from Switzerland.1887–1915 he worked together with Robert Curjel in Karlsruhe.Some of their works:* Kunsthaus Zurich* University of Zurich* Basel Badischer Bahnhof...
(first president), Hendrik Berlage
Hendrik Petrus Berlage
thumb|120px|left|BerlageHendrik Petrus Berlage, Amsterdam, 21 February 1856 — The Hague 12 August 1934, was a prominent Dutch architect.-Overview:...
, Victor Bourgeois
Victor Bourgeois
Victor Bourgeois was a Belgian architect and urban planner, considered the greatest Belgian modernist architect....
, Pierre Chareau
Pierre Chareau
Pierre Chareau was a French architect and designer.-Early life:Chareau was born in Le Havre, France. He went to the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris by the time he was 17.-Work:...
, Sven Markelius
Sven Markelius
Sven Gottfrid Markelius was one of the most important modernist Swedish architects. Markelius played an important role in the post-war urban planning of Stockholm, for example in the creation of the model suburb of Vällingby .Born in Stockholm in October 1889, he attended the Royal Institute of...
, Josef Frank
Josef Frank (architect)
Josef Frank was an Austrian-born architect, artist, and designer who adopted Swedish citizenship in the latter half of his life. Together with Oskar Strnad, he created the Vienna School of Architecture, and its concept of Modern houses, housing and interiors.- Life :Josef Frank was of Jewish...
, Gabriel Guevrekian
Gabriel Guevrekian
Gabriel Guevrekian was an architect and landscape designer. Primarily an architect Guevrekian is best known for his contributions to landscape architecture...
, Max Ernst Haefeli, Hugo Häring
Hugo Häring
Hugo Häring was a German architect and architectural writer best known for his writings on "organic architecture", and as a figure in architectural debates about functionalism in the 1920s and 1930s, though he had an important role as an expressionist architect.A student of the great Theodor...
, Arnold Höchel, Huib Hoste, Pierre Jeanneret
Pierre Jeanneret
Pierre Jeanneret was a Swiss architect who collaborated with his more famous brother Charles Edouard Jeanneret for about twenty years....
(cousin of Le Corbusier), André Lurçat
André Lurçat
André Lurçat was a French modernist architect, landscape architect, furniture designer and city planner, a founding member of CIAM, and active in the rebuilding in French cities after World War II...
, Ernst May
Ernst May
Ernst May was a German architect and city planner.May successfully applied urban design techniques to the city of Frankfurt am Main during Germany's Weimar period, and in 1930 less successfully exported those ideas to Soviet Union cities, newly created under Stalinist rule...
, Fernando García Mercadal, Hannes Meyer
Hannes Meyer
Hans Emil "Hannes" Meyer was a Swiss architect and second director of the Bauhaus in Dessau from 1928 to 1930.-Early work:...
, Werner M. Moser
Werner M. Moser
Werner Max Moser was a Swiss architect whose most famous work is the modern campus of the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur....
, Carlo Enrico Rava, Gerrit Rietveld
Gerrit Rietveld
Gerrit Thomas Rietveld was a Dutch furniture designer and architect. One of the principal members of the Dutch artistic movement called De Stijl, Rietveld is famous for his Red and Blue Chair and for the Rietveld Schröder House, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.-Biography:Rietveld was born in...
, Alberto Sartoris, Hans Schmidt, Mart Stam
Mart Stam
Mart Stam was a Dutch architect, urban planner, and furniture designer. Stam was extraordinarily well-connected, and his career intersects with important moments in the history of 20th century European architecture, including chair design at the Bauhaus, the Weissenhof Estate, the "Van Nelle...
, Rudolf Steiger, Szymon Syrkus, Henri-Robert Von der Mühll, and Juan de Zavala. The Soviet delegates were to be El Lissitzky
El Lissitzky
, better known as El Lissitzky , was a Russian artist, designer, photographer, typographer, polemicist and architect. He was an important figure of the Russian avant garde, helping develop suprematism with his mentor, Kazimir Malevich, and designing numerous exhibition displays and propaganda works...
, Nikolai Kolli
Nikolai Kolli
Nikolai Dzhemsovich Kolli was a Russian Constructivist architect and city planner.Born in Moscow, Kolli studied at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture and then at Vkhutemas...
and Moisei Ginzburg
Moisei Ginzburg
Moisei Yakovlevich Ginzburg was a Soviet constructivist architect, best known for his 1929 Narkomfin Building in Moscow.-Education:Ginzburg was born in Minsk in a Jewish real estate developer's family. He graduated from Milano Academy and Riga polytechnic institute . During Russian Civil War he...
, although at the Sarraz conference they were unable to obtain visas.
Other later members included Alvar Aalto
Alvar Aalto
Hugo Alvar Henrik Aalto was a Finnish architect and designer. His work includes architecture, furniture, textiles and glassware...
, Uno Åhrén
Uno Åhrén
Uno Åhrén was a Swedish architect and city planner, and a leading proponent of Functionalism in Sweden....
, Louis Herman De Koninck
Louis Herman De Koninck
Louis Herman De Koninck was a Belgian architect and designer.One of the leading Belgian architect of the 20th century, De Koninck developed an original form of modernism and constructivism architecture...
(1929) and Fred Forbát
Fred Forbát
Fred Forbát was a Hungarian-born architect with significant work in Germany and Sweden.Forbát was born of Jewish parents in Pécs...
. In 1941, Harwell Hamilton Harris
Harwell Hamilton Harris
Harwell Hamilton Harris, FAIA was a modernist American architect, noted for his work in Southern California that assimilated European and American influences.-Biography:Harris was born in Redlands, California in 1903...
was chosen as secretary of the American branch of CIAM, which was the Chapter for Relief and Post War Planning, founded in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
.
Influence
The organization was hugely influential. It was not only engaged in formalizing the architectural principles of the Modern Movement, but also saw architecture as an economic and political tool that could be used to improve the world through the design of buildings and through urban planningUrban planning
Urban planning incorporates areas such as economics, design, ecology, sociology, geography, law, political science, and statistics to guide and ensure the orderly development of settlements and communities....
.
The fourth CIAM meeting in 1933 was to have been held in Moscow. The rejection of Le Corbusier's competition entry for the Palace of the Soviets, a watershed moment and an indication that the Soviets had abandoned CIAM's principles, changed those plans. Instead it was held onboard ship, the SS Patris II, which sailed from Marseille
Marseille
Marseille , known in antiquity as Massalia , is the second largest city in France, after Paris, with a population of 852,395 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Marseille extends beyond the city limits with a population of over 1,420,000 on an area of...
to Athens
Athens
Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...
.
Here the group discussed concentrated on principles of "The Functional City", which broadened CIAM's scope from architecture into urban planning. Based on an analysis of thirty-three cities, CIAM proposed that the social problems faced by cities could be resolved by strict functional segregation, and the distribution of the population into tall apartment blocks at widely spaced intervals. These proceedings went unpublished from 1933 until 1942, when Le Corbusier, acting alone, published them in heavily edited form as the "Athens Charter
Athens Charter
The Athens Charter, or Charte d'Athènes was a document about urban planning published by the Swiss architect, Le Corbusier in 1943. The work was based upon Le Corbusier’s Ville Radieuse book of 1935 and urban studies undertaken by the Congrès International d'Architecture Moderne in the early...
."
As CIAM members traveled worldwide after the war, many of its ideas spread outside Europe, notably to the USA. The city planning ideas were adopted in the rebuilding of Europe following World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, although by then some CIAM members had their doubts. Alison and Peter Smithson
Alison and Peter Smithson
English architects Alison Smithson and Peter Smithson together formed an architectural partnership, and are often associated with the New Brutalism .Peter was born in Stockton-on-Tees in north-east England, and Alison was born in Sheffield, South Yorkshire...
were chief among the dissenters. When implemented in the postwar period, many of these ideas were compromised by tight financial constraints, poor understanding of the concepts, or popular resistance. Mart Stam
Mart Stam
Mart Stam was a Dutch architect, urban planner, and furniture designer. Stam was extraordinarily well-connected, and his career intersects with important moments in the history of 20th century European architecture, including chair design at the Bauhaus, the Weissenhof Estate, the "Van Nelle...
's replanning of postwar Dresden in the CIAM formula was rejected by its citizens as an "all-out attack on the city."
The CIAM organisation disbanded in 1959 as the views of the members diverged. Le Corbusier had left in 1955, objecting to the increasing use of English during meetings.
For a reform of CIAM, the group Team 10 was active from 1953 onwards, and two different movements emerged from it: the New Brutalism of the English members (Alison and Peter Smithson) and the Structuralism
Structuralism (architecture)
Structuralism as a movement in architecture and urban planning evolved around the middle of the 20th century. It was a reaction to CIAM-Functionalism , which had led to a lifeless expression of urban planning that ignored the identity of the inhabitants and urban forms.Two different manifestations...
of the Dutch members (Aldo van Eyck
Aldo van Eyck
Aldo van Eyck or van Eijk was an architect from the Netherlands.-Family:...
and Jacob B. Bakema
Jacob B. Bakema
Jacob Berend Bakema was a Dutch modernist architect, notable for his public housing and involvement in the reconstruction of Rotterdam after the Second World War....
).
CIRPAC
The elected executive body of CIAM was CIRPAC, the Comité international pour la résolution des problèmes de l’architecture contemporaine (International Committee for the Resolution of Problems in Contemporary Architecture).Conferences
CIAM's conferences consisted of:- 1928, CIAM I, La SarrazLa SarrazLa Sarraz is a municipality of the canton of Vaud in Switzerland, located in the district of Morges.-Geography:La Sarraz has an area, , of . Of this area, or 48.2% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 39.0% is forested...
, Switzerland, Foundation of CIAM - 1929, CIAM II, Frankfurt am Main, Germany, on The Minimum Dwelling
- 1930, CIAM III, BrusselsBrusselsBrussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
, Belgium, on Rational Land Development (Rationelle Bebauungsweisen) - 1933, CIAM IV, AthensAthensAthens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...
, Greece, on The Functional City (Die funktionelle Stadt) - 1937, CIAM V, ParisParisParis is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, France, on Dwelling and Recovery - 1947, CIAM VI, BridgwaterBridgwaterBridgwater is a market town and civil parish in Somerset, England. It is the administrative centre of the Sedgemoor district, and a major industrial centre. Bridgwater is located on the major communication routes through South West England...
, England, on Reconstruction of the Cities - 1949, CIAM VII, BergamoBergamoBergamo is a town and comune in Lombardy, Italy, about 40 km northeast of Milan. The comune is home to over 120,000 inhabitants. It is served by the Orio al Serio Airport, which also serves the Province of Bergamo, and to a lesser extent the metropolitan area of Milan...
, Italy, on Art and Architecture - 1951, CIAM VIII, HoddesdonHoddesdonHoddesdon is a town in the English county of Hertfordshire, situated in the Lea Valley. The town grew up as a coaching stop on the route between Cambridge and London. It is located southeast of Hertford, north of Waltham Cross and southwest of Bishop's Stortford. At its height during the 18th...
, England, on The Heart of the City - 1953, CIAM IX, Aix-en-ProvenceAix-en-ProvenceAix , or Aix-en-Provence to distinguish it from other cities built over hot springs, is a city-commune in southern France, some north of Marseille. It is in the region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, in the département of Bouches-du-Rhône, of which it is a subprefecture. The population of Aix is...
, France, on Habitat - 1956, CIAM X, DubrovnikDubrovnikDubrovnik is a Croatian city on the Adriatic Sea coast, positioned at the terminal end of the Isthmus of Dubrovnik. It is one of the most prominent tourist destinations on the Adriatic, a seaport and the centre of Dubrovnik-Neretva county. Its total population is 42,641...
, Yugoslavia, on Habitat - 1959, CIAM XI, OtterloOtterloOtterlo is a small village in the province of Gelderland in the Netherlands, in or near the Nationaal Park De Hoge Veluwe....
, the Netherlands, organized dissolution of CIAM by Team 10