“Pro and Contra CIAM”: Modernism and its Discontents

Abstract

The history of the CIAM organization and of its breakaway group Team 10 is one of the best documented and researched themes in recent architectural historiography, thanks to well-organized archives and doctoral programs. Its main protagonists, conferences, internal conflicts, communication and organizational systems have been discussed in numerous publications. Still, the method of dichotomization – generational conflicts, political divisions – tends to divert the attention from continuities and from the complex interrelations between the various lines of thought in- and outside CIAM. The lecture will trace three notions as three threads in the web: ruralism, humanism, and realism, to show their constitutive and transformative role in the fabric of post-war architecture.