Léon Krier
CVO (born 7 April 1946) is a
Luxembourgish architect,
architectural theorist, and
urban planner, a prominent critic of
modernist architecture
Modern architecture, also called modernist architecture, or the modern movement, is an architectural architectural movement, movement and architectural style, style that was prominent in the 20th century, between the earlier Art Deco Architectu ...
and advocate of
New Classical architecture
New Classical architecture, also known as New Classicism or Contemporary Classical architecture, is a Contemporary architecture, contemporary movement that builds upon the principles of Classical architecture. It is sometimes considered the mode ...
and
New Urbanism
New Urbanism is an urban design movement that promotes environmentally friendly habits by creating Walkability, walkable neighbourhoods containing a wide range of housing and job types. It arose in the United States in the early 1980s, and has ...
. Krier combines an international architecture and planning practice with writing and teaching. He is well known for his master plan for
Poundbury, in Dorset, England. He is the younger brother of architect
Rob Krier.
Biography
Krier abandoned his architectural studies at the
University of Stuttgart, Germany, in 1968, after only one year, to work in the office of architect
James Stirling in London, UK. After four years working for Stirling, interrupted by a two-year association with
Josef Paul Kleihues in Berlin, Krier spent 20 years in England practicing and teaching at the
Architectural Association and
Royal College of Art
The Royal College of Art (RCA) is a public university, public research university in London, United Kingdom, with campuses in South Kensington, Battersea and White City, London, White City. It is the only entirely postgraduate art and design uni ...
. 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. Since the late 1970s he has been one of the most influential modern traditional architects and planners. He is one of the first and most prominent critics of architectural modernism, mainly of its functional zoning and the ensuing suburbanism, campaigning for the renaissance of the traditional grown city model and its growth based on the polycentric city model.
His ideas had a great influence on the
New Urbanism
New Urbanism is an urban design movement that promotes environmentally friendly habits by creating Walkability, walkable neighbourhoods containing a wide range of housing and job types. It arose in the United States in the early 1980s, and has ...
movement, both in the US and Europe. The most complete compilation of them is published in his boo
''The Architecture of Community''.
He is best known for his masterplan for, and ongoing oversight of, the development of
Poundbury, an urban extension to
Dorchester, UK for the
Duchy of Cornwall and
Charles III
Charles III (Charles Philip Arthur George; born 14 November 1948) is King of the United Kingdom and the 14 other Commonwealth realms.
Charles was born at Buckingham Palace during the reign of his maternal grandfather, King George VI, and ...
; and for his masterplan for Paseo Cayalá, an extension of four new urban quarters for
Guatemala City
Guatemala City (, also known colloquially by the nickname Guate), is the Capital city, national capital and largest city of the Guatemala, Republic of Guatemala. It is also the Municipalities of Guatemala, municipal capital of the Guatemala Depa ...
. From 1976 to 2016 Krier was a visiting professor at the Universities of
Princeton,
Yale,
Virginia
Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...
,
Cornell and
Notre Dame. From 1987 to 1990 Krier was the first director of the SOMAI, the
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill Architectural Institute, in Chicago. Since 1990, Krier has been industrial designer for Valli e Valli - Assa Abloy and Giorgetti, an Italian furniture company.
In 2003 Krier became the inaugural
Driehaus Architecture Prize laureate.
Krier acts as architectural consultant on his 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
Archaeological Museum of São Miguel de Odrinhas, Portugal; the
Windsor Village Hall in Florida; the Jorge M. Perez Architecture Center, the University of Miami School of Architecture in Miami, Florida; and the new Neighbourhood Center Città Nuova in
Alessandria, Italy.
Though Krier is well known for his defense 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
Vernacular is the ordinary, informal, spoken language, spoken form of language, particularly when perceptual dialectology, perceived as having lower social status or less Prestige (sociolinguistics), prestige than standard language, which is mor ...
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 (unrealized) for the 'reconstruction' of his home city of
Luxembourg
Luxembourg, officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, is a landlocked country in Western Europe. It is bordered by Belgium to the west and north, Germany to the east, and France on the south. Its capital and most populous city, Luxembour ...
(1978), in response to the modernist
redevelopment of the city. He later master planned Luxembourg's new ''Cité Judiciaire'' that was to be architecturally designed by his brother (1990–2008).
In 1990, of the nine experts invited, he was the only one to support the Dresden citizens' initiative to reconstruct the historic
Dresden Frauenkirche and the
Historische Neumarkt area and, in 2007, the Frankfurt
Altstadt Forum, a citizen initiative which succeeded in reconstructing the historic "Hühnermarkt" area against strong professional and political opposition.
Krier has applied his theories in large-scale, detailed plans for numerous cities in the Western world. These include the unrealized schemes for
Kingston upon Hull
Kingston upon Hull, usually shortened to Hull, is a historic maritime city and unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It lies upon the River Hull at its confluence with the Humber Est ...
(1977),
Rome
Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...
(1977),
Luxembourg
Luxembourg, officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, is a landlocked country in Western Europe. It is bordered by Belgium to the west and north, Germany to the east, and France on the south. Its capital and most populous city, Luxembour ...
(1978) (which was his most comprehensive masterplan focusing on sprawl mitigation and town center repair),
West Berlin
West Berlin ( or , ) was a political enclave which comprised the western part of Berlin from 1948 until 1990, during the Cold War. Although West Berlin lacked any sovereignty and was under military occupation until German reunification in 1 ...
(1977–83),
Bremen (1978–1980),
Stockholm
Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...
(1981), Poing Nord,
Munich
Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...
(1983), a masterplan to be completed in the year 2000 for Washington D.C. (1984) commissioned by the
Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...
of New York; Atlantis, a neoclassical district for intellectuals and artists on
Tenerife
Tenerife ( ; ; formerly spelled ''Teneriffe'') is the largest and most populous island of the Canary Islands, an Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Spain. With a land area of and a population of 965,575 inhabitants as of A ...
(1987);
Area Fiat, Novoli (
Florence
Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025.
Florence ...
), Italy (1993),
Corbeanca,
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...
(2007), and the High Malton Masterplan for the Fitzwilliam Estate, Yorkshire, England (2014).
Krier has designed plans commissioned by public administrations, including the redevelopment of Tor Bella Monaca, a degraded suburb of Rome (2010), and a long-term redevelopment policy plan for the municipal area of
Cattolica, Rimini, Italy (2017); he was able to apply similar principles to build developments such as Knokke, Heulebrug, Belgium (1998), completed without his direction; and in his masterplan for Newquay growth area (2002–2006), Cornwall, UK, continued after his resignation by Adam Associates.
, Krier is designing plans for the following locations:
*
Poundbury, Dorset, U.K. (1988–present);
Paseo Cayalá Guatemala City
Guatemala City (, also known colloquially by the nickname Guate), is the Capital city, national capital and largest city of the Guatemala, Republic of Guatemala. It is also the Municipalities of Guatemala, municipal capital of the Guatemala Depa ...
(2003–present);
* El Socorro and Nogales, two new urban quarters for
Guatemala City
Guatemala City (, also known colloquially by the nickname Guate), is the Capital city, national capital and largest city of the Guatemala, Republic of Guatemala. It is also the Municipalities of Guatemala, municipal capital of the Guatemala Depa ...
(2018–present);
* the redevelopment of the close
Fawley Waterside Power Station Southampton, U.K. (2017–present), which gained outline planning permission in July 2020, with construction beginning in 2022 and the first homes expected to be available by 2024;
* the masterplan for a new town
Herencia de Allende near
San Miguel de Allende, México (2018–present).
The size of the city
Krier agreed with the viewpoint of the late
Heinrich Tessenow that there is a strict relationship between the economic and cultural wealth of a city, on the one hand, and the limitation of its population on the other. But this is not a matter of mere hypothesis, he argues, but historical fact. The measurements and geometric organization of a city and of its quarters are not the result of mere chance or accident or simply of economic necessity, but rather represents a civilizing order which is not only aesthetic and technical but also legislative and ethical.
Krier claims, that “the whole of Paris is a pre-industrial city which still works, because it is so adaptable, something the creations of the 20th century will never be. A city like
Milton Keynes cannot survive an economic crisis, or any other kind of crisis, because it is planned as a mathematically determined social and economic project. If that model collapses, the city will collapse with it.” Thus Krier argues not merely against the contemporary modernist city (he in fact argues that places like Los Angeles, US, are not cities), but against a gigantism tendency in urban growth, evident in the exploding scale of urban networks and buildings in European cities throughout the 19th century which was a result of the concentration of economic, political and cultural power. In response to this, Krier proposed the reconstruction of the European city, based on polycentric settlement models which are dictated not by machine scale but by human scale both horizontally and vertically, of self-sufficient mixed use quarters not exceeding (able to be crossed in 10 minutes walk) of building heights of 3 to 5 floors or 100 steps (able to be walked up comfortably) and which are limited not by mere administrative borders but by walkable, ridable, drivable boulevards, tracks, park ways. Cities then grow by the multiplication of independent urban quarters, not by horizontal or vertical over-extensions of established urban cores.
On the development of the city
Krier has written a number of essays − many first published in the journal ''
Architectural Design'', 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 modernist planner as a tyrannical figure that imposes detrimental megastructural scale more dictated by ideology than necessity.
Krier summons up his criticisms and pinpoints concepts in the form of series of drawings and didactic annotated diagrams, often in his own handwriting, eventually collected in his book
Drawings for Architecture', like the concept of Urban in his 1983 diagram of a truly urban town= RES PUBLICA+RES PRIVATA. There he conceives the basic urban fabric, made of private buildings and uses, as an object of vernacular local design and the exceptional public and institutional buildings as objects of classical architecture and located in privileged sites, on squares and in the focus of major vistas.
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 type: 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 unrealized scheme for a school in
Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines
Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines () is a new town and an agglomeration community in the French department of Yvelines. It is one of the original five villes nouvelles ( new towns) of Paris and was named after the Saint Quentin Pond, which was chosen ...
(1978), France, the school became a “city in miniature”.
Krier proposes functional programs greatly varied within each block and plot. For him the building's design should always be typologically or tectonically justified and the variety of building types and volumes should reflect this functional variety in an evident and natural way; in short all gratuitous uniformity or gratuitous variety should be avoided designing neighboring building lots of dimensional, functional and thus formal variety and in such a way as to generate networks of public spaces consisting of public streets, squares, avenues, boulevards, parks. For Krier it is essential to compose at once the harmony of the urban blocks and of the inseparable public spaces generated between them.
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.”
He has defended the architecture of
Hitler cabinet minister Albert Speer, distinguishing his work from the regime he served.
A selection of manifesto texts by Krier
Many of these are available online
*The idea of reconstruction
*Critique of zoning
*Town and country
*Critique of the megastructural city
*Critique of industrialization
*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
Selected publications
*''James Stirling: buildings & projects 1950-1974,'' Stuttgart, Gerd Hatje, 1975
*''Rational Architecture Rationelle'', Bruxelles, AAM Editions, 1978.
*''Léon Krier. Houses, Palaces, Cities''. Edited by Demetri Porphyrios, ''Architectural Design'', 54 7/8, 1984.
*''Léon Krier Drawings 1967-1980'', Bruxelles, AAM Editions, 1981.
*''
Albert Speer, Architecture 1932-1942'', Bruxelles, AAM Editions, 1985. New York, Monacelli Press, 2013.
[Samir Younés (2014) Book review of Léon Krier's “Albert Speer. Architecture 1932–1942”, ''Journal of Architecture and Urbanism'', 38:3, 210-212,]
*''Léon Krier: Architecture & Urban Design 1967-1992'', London, Academy Editions, 1992.
*''Architecture: Choice or Fate'', London, Andreas Papadakis Publishers, 1998.
*''Get Your House Right, Architectural Elements to Use & Avoid,'' New York, Sterling Publishing, 2007
*''The Architectural Tuning of Settlements,'' London, The Prince's Foundation, 2008
*''Drawing for Architecture'', Cambridge (Massachusetts), MIT Press, 2009.
*''The Architecture of Community'', Washington DC, Island Press, 2009.
* Léon Krier: selected publications available onlin
Leon Krier -- Selected Publications
References
External links
2001 interview on New Urbanism* on the
Driehaus Prize, feat. Léon Krier
Article 'Cities for Living' by Roger Scruton at city-journal.org
{{DEFAULTSORT:Krier, Leon
New Classical architects
Academics of the Royal College of Art
1946 births
Living people
People from Luxembourg City
Urban theorists
Luxembourgian urban planners
New Urbanism
Driehaus Architecture Prize winners
21st-century Luxembourgian architects