The Athens Charter emerged from the 1933 congress of the Congrès International d'Architecture Moderne (CIAM), held aboard a ship between Marseille and Athens, and set out the principles of the 'functional city'. It argued that urban planning should rigorously separate the four key functions of dwelling, work, recreation and circulation into distinct zones, favouring high-rise housing set in open green space served by efficient road networks. Le Corbusier publicised an influential version of the text in 1943. It rejected the dense, mixed-use traditional street in favour of rational functional order.
The charter became the doctrinal foundation of postwar modernist planning, informing functional zoning and tower-in-the-park housing across the world. Its ideas shaped reconstruction, new towns and mass housing for decades before provoking a sustained reaction against single-use zoning and superblocks.