The document discusses the Congrès Internationaux d'Architecture Moderne (CIAM) or International Congress of Modern Architecture, an organization of modern architects founded in 1928 that held international conferences until 1959. It highlights two important conferences - "The Functional City" in 1933 that broadened CIAM's scope from architecture to urban planning, and proposed resolving social problems through strict functional zoning and tall apartment blocks spaced far apart. Another was the controversial "Athens Charter" from 1942 that committed CIAM to rigid functional cities with citizens housed in high, spaced apartment blocks separated by green belts.