News — eesteren

Planning the Modern City: De Functioneele Stad (1935) In 1935, the Dutch modernist group De 8 en Opbouw put a bold question before the public: what should a city be for? Its exhibition, De Functioneele Stad (“The Functional City”), offered an answer shaped by architect and urban planner Cornelis van Eesteren. A city, the exhibition argued, should be planned around the needs of everyday life—not simply allowed to grow as a crowded collection of streets and buildings. Van Eesteren was a leading figure in the international modernist movement and in CIAM, the Congresses Internationaux d’Architecture Moderne. He worked closely with...