A REVIEW OF THE ATHENS CHARTER-LE CORBUSIER

This document was delivered because of the IV International Congress of Modern Architecture
which took as its topic "the functional city" and concentrated on urbanism and the significance of
arranging in urban advancement plans. The record incorporates urban troupes in the meaning of the
constructed legacy and underlines the profound, social and monetary estimation of the
compositional legacy. It incorporates a suggestion requiring the obliteration of urban ghettos and
making of "verdant zones" in their place, denying any potential legacy estimation of such regions. It
censures the utilization of pastiche for new development in noteworthy territories.

THE ATHENS CHARTER, 1933

Translated by J. Tyrwhitt

From La Charte d'Athenes Paris, 1943

I. THE CITY IN ITS REGIONAL SETTING points 1-8

II. THE FOUR FUNCTIONS OF THE CITY

III. CONCLUSIONS 71-95

I. THE CITY IN ITS REGIONAL SETTING

The city is just a piece of the monetary, social and political element which constitutes the area.
Financial, social and political qualities are compared with the mental and physiological properties of
the person, raising issues of the relations between the individual and the network. Life can just
extend to the degree that understanding is come to between these two restricting powers: the
individual and the network.

Mental and organic constants are impacted by nature: its geographic and topographic circumstance
and its monetary and political circumstance. The geographic and topographic circumstance is of
prime significance, and incorporates characteristic components, land and water, verdure, soil,
atmosphere, and so on.

Next comes the monetary circumstance, including the assets of the locale and common or artificial
methods for correspondence with the outside world.

Thirdly comes the political circumstance and the arrangement of government and organization.
Extraordinary conditions have, all through history, decided the character of individual urban
communities: military protection, logical revelations, distinctive organizations, the dynamic
advancement of correspondences and strategies for transportation (street, water, rail, air). The
variables which administer the improvement of urban communities are in this manner subject to
persistent change. The approach of the machine age has made tremendous unsettling influences
man's propensities, place of staying and sort of work; an uncontrolled focus in urban areas, caused
by mechanical transportation, has brought about merciless and all inclusive changes without
precedent [sic] ever. Tumult has gone into the urban areas.

II. THE FOUR FUNCTIONS OF THE CITY

A. Dwelling

The population density is excessive in the focal districts of cities and in some nineteenth century
zones of expansion: densities ascend to 1000 and even 1500 tenants for every hectare (roughly 400
to 600 per acre).

In the congested urban territories lodging conditions are unfortunate because of inadequate
space inside the house, absence of useable green spaces and deteriorating maintenance. This
circumstance is further bothered by the populace with a low expectation for everyday comforts,
unequipped for starting improvements (mortality up to 20 per cent). Expansions of the city
consume, its neighbouring green regions; one can observe the progressive rings of advancement.
This ever more noteworthy detachment from characteristic components elevates the hurtful
impacts of terrible clean conditions.

Dwellings are dispersed all through the city without thought of sanitary necessities.

The most crammed areas are at all worst circumstances (on unfavourable inclination, attacked by
smog, subjected to flooding, and so forth.) Low intensity developments (middle income houses) fill
the favourable destinations, shielded from adverse breezes, with views opening onto a pleasing
wide, lake, ocean, or mountains, and so on and with sufficient air and daylight. This arrangement of
houses is authorized by custom, and by an arrangement of neighbourhood regulations considered
legitimate: zoning.

Structures developed near highways and around junction are unacceptable for residences due to
commotion, dust and harmful gases.

The conventional arrangement of houses at the edges of streets implies that good exposure to
daylight is minimum for a number of residences.

The segregation of amenities with housing is subjective. Schools, specifically, are built on traffic
routes and too far from the houses they serve. Suburbs have developed without plans and without
efficient connections with the city. Endeavours have been made too tardy where it is impossible to
fuse rural areas inside the authoritative unit of the city. Suburban areas are rarely an agglomeration
of hutments where it is hard to gather funds for the vital streets and administrations.

IT IS RECOMMENDED

Residential areas ought to fill the best places in the city from the perspective of typography,
atmosphere, daylight and accessibility of green space.
The determination of housing zones ought to be resolved on grounds of health. Sensible densities
ought to be implemented related both to the type of housing and to the state of the site. A
minimum number of hours of daylight ought to be required for each residence unit. The
arrangement of residences along major routes courses ought to be restricted. Full use ought to be
made of present day building methods in developing high-rise apartments. High-rise apartments set
at wide separations from free ground for extensive open spaces.

B. Recreation

Open spaces are for the most part deficient. When there is adequate open space it is often badly
circulated and, hence not promptly usable by the greater part of the population. Distant open spaces
cannot enhance zones of downtown cramming. The few games fields, for reasons of access, often
possess destinations reserved for future advancement for housing or industry: which makes for a
tricky existance and their regular uprooting. Land that could be utilized for week-end relaxation is
frequently difficult to access.

IT IS RECOMMENDED

Every single residence ought to be given adequate open space to meet needs for leisure and sports
for kids, young people and grown-ups.

Unsanitary slums ought to be relocated and replaced by open space. This would enhance the
surroundings. The new open spaces ought to be utilized for proper intentions: kids' play areas,
schools, youth clubs and other amenities firmly associated with housing. It ought to be possible to
spend week-end free time in available and ideal spots. These ought to be spread out as open parks,
forests, sports grounds, stadiums, beaches, and so on. Full advantage ought to be taken of existing
natural features: streams, backwoods, slopes, mountains, valleys, lakes, ocean, and so on.

C. Work

Work places are not reasonably distributed inside the urban complex. This includes industry,
workshops, workplaces, government and trade.

Associations amongst residences and work places are not any more sensible: they force too much
long trips to work. The time spent in travelling to work has attained a critical situation. Without
planning programs, the uncontrolled development of urban areas, absence of foresight, land
speculation and so forth have made industry settle aimlessly, following no run the show. Business
areas are based in the downtown business locale which, as the most favoured piece of the city,
served by the most entire arrangement of interchanges, promptly falls prey to theory. Since
workplaces are private concerns powerful making arrangements for their best advancement is
troublesome.

IT IS RECOMMENDED

Separations between work places and residences ought to be decreased to a base. Mechanical
divisions ought to be isolated from private areas by a territory of green open space. Mechanical
zones ought to be adjoining with railways, waterways and thruways. Workshops, which are
personally identified with urban life, and for sure get from it, ought to involve very much outlined
regions in the inside of the city. Business regions gave to organization both open and private, ought
to be guaranteed of good correspondences with local locations and additionally with ventures and
workshops inside the city and upon its edges.

D. Transportation

The existing network of urban communications has arisen from an agglomeration of the aids roads
of major traffic routes. In Europe these major routes date back well into the middle Ages, sometimes
even into antiquity. Devised for the use of pedestrians and horse drawn vehicles, they are
inadequate for today's mechanized transportation.

These inappropriate street dimensions prevent the effective use of mechanized vehicles at speeds
corresponding to urban pressure. Distances between crossroads are too infrequent. Street widths
are insufficient. Their widening is difficult and often ineffectual. Faced by the needs of high speed
vehicles, present the apparently irrational street pattern lacks efficiency and flexibility,
differentiation and order. Relics of a former pompous magnificence designed for special
monumental effects often complicate traffic circulation. In many cases the railroad system presents
a serious obstacle to well planned urban development. It barricades off certain residential districts,
depriving them from easy contact with the most vital elements of the city.

IT IS RECOMMENDED

Traffic analyses are made, based on accurate statistics, to show the general pattern of circulation in
the city and its region, and reveal the location of heavily travelled routes and the types of their
traffic.

Transportation routes should be classified according to their nature, and be designed to meet the
requirements and speeds of specific types of vehicles. Heavily used traffic junctions should be
designed for continuous passage of vehicles, using different levels. Pedestrian routes and
automobile routes should follow separate paths. Roads should be differentiated according to their
functions: residential streets, promenades, through roads, major highways, etc. In principle, heavy
traffic routes should be insulated by green belts.

E. Legacy of History

IT IS RECOMMENDED

Fine architecture, whether individual buildings or groups of buildings, should be protected from
demolition. The grounds for the preservation of buildings should be that they express an earlier
culture and that their retention is in the public interest. But their preservation should no [sic] entail
that people are obliged to live in salubrious conditions. If their present location obstructs
development, radical measures may be called for, such as altering major circulation routes or even
shifting existing central districts - something usually considered impossible. The demolition of slums
surrounding historic monuments provides an opportunity to create new open spaces.
The re-use of past styles of building for new structures in historic areas under the pretext of
aesthetics has disastrous consequences. The continuance or the introduction of such habits in any
form should not be tolerated.

III. CONCLUSIONS

A large portion of the urban areas examined display a picture of chaos. They don't relate their
purpose: to fulfil the essential biological and physiological needs of their occupants.

The irresponsibility of private undertaking has brought about a tragedy between the harmony
between solid financial powers on one side and, on the other, feeble administrative controls and
weak social interests.

Despite the fact that cities are always showing signs of change, their improvement continues
without request or control and with no attempt to apply contemporary town arranging standards,
have been indicated in professionally qualified circles. The city ought to guarantee both individual
freedom and the advantages of collective activity on both the spiritual and material planes. The
measurements of everything within the city should identify with the human scale. The four keys to
urban planning are the four elements of the city: dwelling, work, leisure (utilization of recreation
time), and transportation. The city design should decide the internal structure and the interrelated
positions in the city of every area of the four key capacities.

The arrangement ought to guarantee that the everyday cycle of exercises between the residence,
working environment and recreation can happen with the most extreme economy of time. The
residence ought to be considered as the primary focus of all urban planning, to which every single
other capacity are connected. The speed of mechanized transportation has disturbed the urban
setting, introducing an ever-present danger, discouraging communication and jeopardizing
wellbeing.

The guideline of urban and suburban flow must be modified. An improved kind of zoning must be set
up that can bring the key elements of the city into an agreeable relationship and create associations
between them. These associations would then be able to be produced into a rational network of
major highways.

Town planning is a science in view of three dimensions, not on two. This presents the element of
height which offers the likelihood of freeing spaces for current activity flow and for recreational
purposes.

The city ought to be analyzed with regards to its region of influence. An arrangement for the
economic unit must replace the basic master plan of a city. The city ought to have the capacity to
develop harmoniously as a working urban unit in the entirety of its distinctive parts, by methods for
destined open spaces and connecting links, however a condition of equilibrium should exist at each
phase of its advancement. It is extremely vital for each city to set up an arranging program
demonstrating what laws will be expected to convey the plan to reality. The arranging program must
be founded on thorough investigative examinations completed by professionals. It must predict its
phases of advancement in time and space. It must facilitate the common assets of the site, its
topographic advantages, its financial resources, its social needs and its profound goals.

The architect engaged with the town arranging ought to decide everything as per the human scale.

The point of departure for all town planning ought to be the single dwelling and its gathering into
neighbourhood units of appropriate size. With these neighbouring units as the basis, the urban
complex can be intended to draw out the relations between housing, work environments and spots
dedicated to entertainment. The full resources of modern technology are expected to do this
enormous errand. This implies acquiring the collaboration of professionals to improve the art of
building by the incorporation of scientific innovations. The progress of these developments will be
extraordinarily affected by political, social and monetary elements. Also, not, in the final resort, by
questions of architecture. The magnitude of the task of revamping the city, and the extreme
subdivision of urban land proprietorships show two hostile realities. This sharp contradiction poses a
standout amongst the most difficult issues of our time: the squeezing need to regulate the
disposition of land on an equitable and legal basis, so as to meet the vital needs of the community as
well as those of the individual. Private interests ought to be subordinated to the interests of the
community.

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