Analysis of contemporary architecture…
A study on Léon Krier
an architect and urban planner..
Nilakash Dutta
Roll no. 01110201023
3rd year , 2nd sem
Jadavpur University

Léon Krier
one of the world's outstanding architects and urbanists.
Born on 7 April 1946 in Luxembourg, Grand Duchy of
Luxembourg
About him:
Leon krier is an architect, architectural theorist and urban planner. From the
late 1970s onwards Krier has been one of the most influential neo-traditional architects
and planners. He is best known for his on going development
of Poundbury, an urban extension to Dorchester, UK for the Duchy of
Cornwall under the guidance of Prince of Wales and his Masterplan for
Cayalá, an extension of Guatemala City. He is one of the first and most prominent
critics of the architectural modernism, mainly of its functional zoning and the ensuing
suburbanism, campaigning for the reconstruction of the traditional European city
model. These ideas had a great influence on the New Urbanism movement, both in the
USA and Europe. The most complete compilation of them is published in his book "The
Architecture of Community". Léon Krier is the younger brother of architect Rob Krier.

Krier acts as architectural consultant on urban planning projects but only designs
buildings of his personal choice. Amongst his best known realizations are the
temporary façade at the 1980 Venice Biennale; the Krier house in the resort
village of Seaside, Florida, USA (where he also advised on the masterplan);
the Arqueological Museum of Sintra, Portugal; the Windsor Village
Hall Florida; the Jorge M. Perez Architecture Center on the campus of
the University of Miami in Miami, Florida; and the new Neighbourhood
Center Città Nuova in Alessandria, Italy. Currently Leon Krier is involved in
the planning for the reconstruction of Tor Bella Monaca, a degraded suburb
of Rome.
Education:
Krier abandoned in 1968 his architectural studies at the University of
Stuttgart, Germany, after only one year, to work in the office of architect James
Stirling in London, UK. After working for Stirling for three years, Krier then spent 20
years in England practicing and teaching at the Architectural Association and Royal
College of Art. In this period, Krier's statement: “I am an architect, because I don’t
build”,became a famous expression of his uncompromising anti-modernist attitude. In
1987-90 Krier was the first director of the SOMAI, the Skidmore, Owings &
Merrill Architectural Institute, in Chicago. Since 1990 Krier is involved in designing
furniture for Giorgetti, Italy

Career:
Though Krier is well known for his defence of classical architecture and the reconstruction
of traditional “European city” models, close scrutiny of his work in fact shows a shift from
an early Modernist rationalist approach (project for University of Bielefeld, 1968) towards
a vernacular and classical approach both formally and technologically. The project that
marked a major turning point in his campaigning attitude towards the reconstruction of
the traditional European city was his scheme (unrealised) for the 'reconstruction' of his
home city of Luxembourg (1978), in response to the radical modernist redevelopment of
the city. He later master planned Luxembourg's new Cite Judiciaire that was to be
architecturally designed by his brother (1990-2008)
Some of his hand works:
Le Nouveau Quartier des Halles (1979) Reconstruction Proposal

Alessandria, Città Nuova, Italy, Masterplan
New College Residence, Oxford, England
(with John Robins)

Street View of Alessandria, Italy by Léon Krier
Revision of the Cerda Block, Barcelona, Spain, 1976.

Facades on New Piazza in Alessandria, Italy by Léon Krier
and Gabriele Tagliaventi
Village Hall, Windsor Fla,1997, by Léon Krier
New Piazza in Alessandria, Italy
by Léon Krier and Gabriele Tagliaventi

New Town of Poundbury, England
Street View in New Town of Poundbury

New Town of Poundbury with New Market-Hall
by Léon Krier (Masterplan) and John Simpson
(Market-Hall)

On architecture and the city:
The principle behind Krier’s writings has been to explain the rational foundations of
architecture and the city, stating that “In the language of symbols, there can exist no
misunderstanding”. That is to say, for Krier, buildings have a rational order and typology: a
house, a palace, a temple, a campanile, a church; but also a roof, a column, a
window, etc., what he terms “nameable objects”. As projects get bigger, he goes on to
argue, the buildings should not get bigger, but divide up; thus, for instance, in his
unrealised scheme for a school in Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (1978), France, the school
became a “city in miniature”. In searching for such a typological architecture, Krier’s work
has been termed “an architecture without a style”. However, it has also been pointed out
that the appearance of his architecture is very much like Roman architecture, which he
then places in all his projects, be it central London, Stockholm, Tenerife or Florida.”
On the development of the city:
Krier has written a number of essays − many first published in the journal Architectural
Design, often in his own handwriting in the form of series of didactic annotated diagrams −
against modernist town planning and its principle of dividing up the city into a system of
single use zones (housing, shopping, industry, leisure, etc.), as well as the resultant
suburbia, commuting, etc. Indeed Krier sees the modern planner as a tyrannical figure that
imposes detrimental megastructural scale.

•A selection of manifesto texts by Léon Krier:
•The idea of reconstruction
•Critique of zoning
•Town and country
•Critique of the megastructural city
•Critique of industrialisation
•Urban components
•The city within the city – Les Quartiers
•The size of a city
•Critique of Modernisms
•Organic versus mechanical composition
•Names and nicknames
•Building and architecture
•The reconstruction of the European city
•What is an urban quartier? Form and legislation

Books:
Rational - Architecture - Rationnelle
Archives d'Architecture Moderne, Brussels, 1978. (Bilingual French/English text).
Léon Krier: Drawings
Archives d'Architecture Moderne, Brussels, 1980. Introduction by Maurice Culot.
Houses, Palaces, Cities
Demetri Porphyrios, editor, Academy Publications, London, 1984.
Published as the July/August issue of Architectural Design, volume 54 (1984).
Albert Speer: Architecture 1932-1942
Archives d'Architecture Moderne, Brussels, 1985. (Bilingual French/English text).
Architecture and Urban Design 1967-1992
Richard Economakis, editor, Academy Publications, London, 1992.
Architecture: Choice or Fate
Andreas Papadakis Publisher, Windsor, England, 1998. Published in
Czech, English, French, German, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, and Spanish. Winner of the Silver
Medal of the Académie Française.

Krier in others view:
"His view of the city as a document of intelligence, memory, and pleasure is the antithesis of the
concept of the disposable, adaptable, plug-in city of Archigram, Metabolism, and other
advocates, and he has been critical of Post-Modernism and stylistic pluralism, condemning both as
unserious, unintellectual Kitsch. He has seen de-zoning of activities in cities to be essential and is
fundamentally opposed to the views of Le Corbusier, CIAM, and the Athens Charter that seem to be
firmly embedded virtually everywhere, despite efforts by Jane Jacobs and many others to excise
them." -- James Stevens Curl.
"One day I went to a lecture by Leon Krier, the man who designed the English model town of
Poundbury for the Prince of Wales. Krier gave a powerful talk about traditional urbanism, and after
a couple of weeks of real agony and crisis I realized I couldn't go on designing these fashionable tall
buildings, which were fascinating visually, but didn't produce any healthy urban effect. They
wouldn't affect society in a positive way. The prospect of instead creating traditional communities
where our plans could actually make someone's daily life better really excited me. Krier introduced
me to the idea of looking at people first, and to the power of physical design to change the social
life of a community. And so, in a year or so my wife and I left the firm and went off to do something
very different." -- Andres Duany.

"Léon Krier is one of the most important influences on the principles espoused by the charter for
the New Urbanism. For those who don't know, Krier is a European architect who has spent a
lifetime writing, drawing, lecturing, and teaching. He has designed a number of noteworthy plans
for European cities, including for Poundbury, whose developer is the Prince of Wales -- who might
be called a New Urbanist. I would highly recommend Krier's books, including
'Architecture, Choice or Fate'." -- Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk.
"Léon Krier was among those who first realized that indiscriminate toleration posing as the
guarantor of democratic freedom had thrown architecture and the city into disarray, undermining
the very discipline of architecture itself. ... Both through his projects and writings alike, [he] has
sought to explain the rational foundations of architecture and the city. ... No architect has
explored architecture's claim to universality better than Léon Krier, and it is this which makes
him the most controversial figure of contemporary architectural culture." -- Demetri
Porphyrios.
"The main tenets of the classical school of architecture and urbanism, now termed 'New
Urbanism' in the USA, began to be laid down by the Luxembourg architect Léon Krier during
the 1970s. The Krier approach was distinguished by its clarity, and matched by an extremely
effective polemical strategy, in which many things which had been 'outlawed' from urban
design thinking since World War II were made to seem once again to be simple good sense." --
Brian Hanson & Samir Younés.

References:
Wikipedia
Goodreads.com
http://zeta.math.utsa.edu/
http://zakuski.utsa.edu/
www.google.co.in