Commemoration of Léon Krier

Let us honour the life and achievements of Leon Krier, one of most original and talented creative minds to have informed current architecture and urbanism. 

Since discussions of style quickly turn partisan, Krier’s legacy as an architect is perhaps best left for future historians. Yet even in the immediacy of loss, and irrespective of standpoint, his contributions as a critic and urbanist are unassailable.  

The old adage that an image can say more than reams of words is proven by Krier’s output as an illustrator and cartoonist. Variously analytical, ironic, humorous, polemical and visionary, his cartoons possess an unerring ability to sum up complex problems with a stroke of the pen. They capture the condition of the city, both modern and traditional, distilling fundamental lessons such as the liveability of mixed-use places where the necessities of life can be reached by foot in 10 or 15 minutes.

Simple truths like these, uniting common sense and a yearning for beauty and conviviality, found parallel expression in Krier’s writings and projects. Not forgetting his personal teaching and charisma, his combined production has arguably done more to counter the too-often alienating effects of industrialized urbanism than any other individual since the second World War.

The combined effect of this prodigious production has been sometimes direct, as at Poundbury, and sometimes indirect, as with many communities created by those he influenced or collaborated with (not forgetting his similarly multi-talented brother Rob). Cities for a Small Planet by Richard Rogers did much to promote kindred approaches to urbanism under the radar, as it were, for the book’s huge debt to Krier went unacknowledged.

By one means or other, Krier helped turn the tanker of modernist planning away from lines of slab-blocks and sprinklings of skyscrapers, and towards streets, squares and urban principles that most people prefer. Krier’s humanist legacy can only grow as more places are emerging across the globe that bear the imprint of a fearless genius animated by warmth and passion.

Mark Wilson Jones

Architect and architectural historian

Chair of the Traditional Architecture Group