ABSTRACT
Team X was an architectural group formed in the early 1950s by a number of young European architects. The participants were dissatisfied with the mid-20th-century Modern movement, particularly with the ideals of CIAM (Congrès Internationaux d’Architecture Moderne), with which they had previously been affiliated. Oscar Newman’s CIAM ‘59 in Otterlo and Alison Smithson’s The Emergence of Team 10 out of C.I.A.M. document Team X’s official secession from CIAM. Factions that began to appear at the CIAM IX meeting in Aix-en-Provence in 1953 between the old guard and the younger generation anticipated the split. Under that meeting’s theme, “Habitat,” the younger members contested the simplistic divisions of living, working, leisure, and circulation that had been established in the Athens Charter. Alison Smithson contends in Team 10 Meetings: 1953-1984 that the first Team X meeting took place during the meeting at Aix-enProvence. Following the events of CIAM IX, the “youngers” were entrusted with preparing the subject matter for the CIAM X meeting and from then on were known as Team X.Alison and Peter Smithson (England), Aldo van Eyck (Netherlands), Jaap Bakema (Netherlands), Georges Candilis (France), Shadrack Woods (France), John Voelcker (England), and William and Jill Howell (England) were the founding members of Team X. Participants in Team X altered considerably during the group’s existence, but in general the group remained small and was defined by its reaction to the inefficiencies of the large CIAM commissions.
