A study on Léon Krier an architect and urban planner..

Nilakash Dutta Roll no. 01110201023 3rd year , 2nd semJadavpur University

Analysis of contemporary architecture…

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

New College Residence, Oxford, England (with John Robins)

Alessandria, Città Nuova, Italy, Masterplan

Street View of Alessandria, Italy by Léon Krier

Revision of the Cerda Block, Barcelona, Spain, 1976.

Village Hall, Windsor Fla,1997, by Léon Krier

New Piazza in Alessandria, Italyby Léon Krier and Gabriele Tagliaventi

 Facades on New Piazza in Alessandria, Italy by

Léon Krier and Gabriele Tagliaventi 

 Street View in New Town of Poundbury

New Town of Poundbury, England

New Town of Poundbury with New Market-Hallby 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 - RationnelleArchives d'Architecture Moderne, Brussels, 1978. (Bilingual French/English text).

Léon Krier: DrawingsArchives d'Architecture Moderne, Brussels, 1980. Introduction by Maurice Culot.

Houses, Palaces, CitiesDemetri Porphyrios, editor, Academy Publications, London, 1984.Published as the July/August issue of Architectural Design, volume 54 (1984).

Albert Speer: Architecture 1932-1942Archives d'Architecture Moderne, Brussels, 1985. (Bilingual French/English text).

Architecture and Urban Design 1967-1992Richard Economakis, editor, Academy Publications, London, 1992.

Architecture: Choice or FateAndreas 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:

WikipediaGoodreads.comhttp://zeta.math.utsa.edu/http://zakuski.utsa.edu/www.google.co.in

THANK YOU