Contact: Brett Tippey
Email: btippey@kent.edu
Website: https://docomomoconference2024.com
Phone: +1 330.672.3934
Paper abstracts are due 12 Feb 2024, but if you can’t make that deadline and still want to submit, please contact the organizers.
Session title: Beyond CIAM: Transnational Networks of Late Modernism
Session abstract:
CIAM conferences came to an end in 1959, after their 11th edition was held in Otterlo, without the presence of its founding members. Part of the younger generation grouped then around what was eventually called Team 10, self-defined as ‘a small family group of architects who have sought each other out because each has found the help of others necessary to the development and understanding of their own individual work’ (A. Smithson, 1968). Thus, the quest for a universal method of design underlying the CIAM ethos was slowly replaced by an ad-hoc approach that took into account the cultural and physical particularities of the site as well as the social and psychological needs of its inhabitants. But besides the European-driven initiative of Team 10, other exchange networks fostered architectural debate, incorporating a wide array of regional and local approaches that eventually undermined the monolithic canon of early modernism. Exhibitions and events, such as the Bienal de Sao Paulo or the Triennale di Milano; further conferences, such as ICAT-International Congress for Architecture and Townplanning, or the Congresos Panamericanos; along with additional editorial and educational connections provided much needed new channels of cooperation and Exchange. In line with the subtheme 8: Modernity and Diversity, the organizers would like to analyze how journals, conferences and personal and educational networks fostered exchange between architects and regions and nurtured the architectural debate beyond the Central European canon. The organizers would like to explore which were the networks and forums of discussion and reflection on the future course of architecture once the unifying patronage of CIAM dissappeared. While CIAM and Team 10 have been extensiveley researched (Smithson, 1968); (Mumford, 2002; (Risselada, 2005), further channels and events through which Avant-garde ideas evolved
and disseminated in late modernism have yet to be researched. This session expands on the topics explored by the research project RETRANSLATES_Redes transnacionales de la arquitectura española. Lecturas críticas de su difusión y recepción desde el exterior [Retranslates_Transnational Networks of Spanish Architecture. Critical Readings of its Dissemination and Reception Abroad], sponsored by a Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation three-year grant (2023-2025).