The Back Story

Leon Krier who died in June this year at age 79 had admired his eight years older brother Rob who died in 2023 age 85. Both were architects and both derided modernist architecture and current urban design as an abomination. 

Both were outsiders swimming upstream at a time when almost all architects were fervent modernists. In spite of this the elder brother stayed in architecture school long enough to receive a degree, while Leon fled Stuttgart's university after a year without a degree which didn't stop him from becoming an enfant terrible in the international architectural community, or as he would probably prefer, a prophet in the wilderness. In the end it was the younger Leon who got an obituary in the New York Times, not Rob.

The lack of a degree didn't stop the younger Leon to work in reputable architecture firms and even teach at universities. Eventually he landed a very high profile project with Poundbury, a British New Town designed in the style of traditional English village. Its master planning was commissioned to Krier by nobody less than Prince Charles, now the King of England. Krier designed buildings tend to be rather funny creatures that seem to have jumped off the pages of his cartoon style drawings. 

Poundbury is now a place of more than 4000 residents, very cute and so retro, that the garages are too small for contemporary cars. Leon wrote books and endlessly produced entertainingly polemic sketches illustrating the fallacies of modernism and modern planning. His missionary attitude fell on fertile ground not only with Prince Charles but also with with the architect pair of Andres Duany and Plater Zyberk who popularized Krier's beliefs under the term New Urbanism,  originally materialized in the small towns of Seaside Florida and Kentlands, outside Washington DC. A friend and colleague of mine started working on the Kentland project in 1988 as the Town Architect. New Urbanism eventually influenced new suburbs across the country. The Congress of New Urbanism took place 33 times, three times as often than its nemesis, Congrès Internationaux d'Architecture Moderne, Duany proudly notes in his eulogy for Krier.

Both Kriers spent time at the Stuttgart University, my alma mater. Which brought them to my attention early in my life. during my time Rob Krier was teaching assistant to professor Johannes Uhl who taught ......(READ FULL ARTICLE HERE)