There is no dimension of the New Urbanism more important than the practice of design as a discipline that heeds the lessons of the past, as it encourages spiritual renewal. If as new urbanists we believe in precedent, then we must also be versed in the details of its history. Our movement is part of a web of various historical movements, and has been deeply affected by many people whose contributions we must recognize. Not too long ago, in 1959, a group of mostly European architects, rose up in rebellion against the monolithic, absolutist and internationalist theories of modernist Urbanism, and established the beginnings of a profound reformist agenda against it.

They collectively withdrew their membership from CIAM and proceeded to courageously contradict the architectural giants of their time, LeCorbusier, Bakema, Sert, Neutra, Giedion, among others. They formed a "protestant" group called Team 10 and began to advocate an approach to Architecture and Urbanism based on human immediacy, cultural specificity, and historical continuity. They eventually succeeded in bringing CIAM to its knees and in elevating their ideas to accepted practice.

Their triumph may have been the single most important architectural event of the last half-century. The architectural insight and projects of Team 10 made the work of Rossi, Stirling, Krier, and many others of their generation possible. Eventually, the CNU was born in the United States also owing a deep intellectual debt to their polemical theories and group ethic.

By awarding the Seaside Prize to Giancarlo De Carlo today, we are also honoring the accomplishments of Team 10 as an institution.

If he lived in Japan, De Carlo would be considered a living treasure. His life’s work includes the founding and leading of Team 10, polemical writings of rare clarity and focus, built work of lasting beauty and a life- long engagement with research and teaching.

Through Team 10 and his writings, De Carlo argued for the necessity of applying Architecture beyond the single building to the task of constructing and reconstructing cities. He advocated establishing a more tangible connection between Architecture and nature. He elevated the humanity and logic of vernacular form and architectural typology into a championing of living cultures, the needs of real people, and the value of existing settings. He directed his leftist democratic commitments towards the practice of design as an empowering process of public participation. These were then as they are still now, timeless, radical propositions.

His many fine projects located mostly throughout Italy, in Venice, Siena, Urbino, Catania, breathe the morphology of these beloved cities while revealing the creative mind of the thinking, probing architect. Since the 1960’s he has refined the art of being a master architect of place, avoiding the pyrotechnics of individualist style in the interest of composing the terms of designing ongoing physical change at the urban scale. In this age of intellectual adventurism, his work is not only divorced from fashion, but also principled, true to its intellectual roots, a model for us all.

Giancarlo understood early on that projects alone could never change the world. As editor, since 1975, of the magazine Spazio & Societa/ Space and Society, as founder and organizer of the ILAUD, the International Laboratory of Architecture and Urban Design, and as a professor of Architecture at a variety of European and American universities, he has had a significant part in defining the condition of Architecture in our time. In the process, he has also taught by example and inspired many of us to follow in his footsteps and continue his passionate search for design as a catalyst for social change.

Honoring De Carlo today we celebrate, to paraphrase Donlyn Lyndon, "his wonderful probing curiosity, his masterful articulation of issues, his knowledge of form and its consequences, and his truly extraordinary energy, passion and understanding. He remains for many of us a cherished friend, a mentor, an intellectual parent; a man from whom we continue to learn far more than we could begin to acknowledge."