Founding of CIAM

CIAM, the Congres Internationaux d'Architecture Moderne, was founded in June 1928 at the Chateau de la Sarraz in Switzerland, gathering leading European architects under the initiative of Le Corbusier, the Swiss art historian Sigfried Giedion, and the castle's owner Helene de Mandrot, who hosted and helped fund the meeting. Conceived as one of the twentieth century's defining architectural manifestos, CIAM sought to establish modern architecture as an instrument of social transformation, promoting functionalist design, standardisation and rational city planning across Europe. The Swiss architect Karl Moser served as its first president, and its ranks eventually included figures such as Walter Gropius, Alvar Aalto, Hendrik Berlage and Gerrit Rietveld. Over three decades CIAM held a series of international congresses addressing housing, urbanism and the functional city, most famously producing the Athens Charter from its fourth congress in 1933. Internal disagreements and the rise of a younger cohort known as Team 10 eventually fractured the group, and CIAM formally disbanded in 1959 at a meeting in Otterlo, the Netherlands.