Léon Krier

Léon Krier
Léon Krier at the Old Town Forum of Frankfurt, Germany, in 2007
Born	(1946-04-07) April 7, 1946 (age 71) City of Luxembourg, Grand Duchy of Luxembourg
Occupation	Architect
Awards	Driehaus Architecture Prize 2003

Léon Krier (born 7 April 1946 in Luxembourg, Grand Duchy of Luxembourg) is an architect, architectural theorist and urban planner. He is a representative of New Urbanism and New Classical Architecture. Krier was the first laureate of the Driehaus Architecture Prize in 2003. Léon Krier is the younger brother of architect Rob Krier.

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 has served as the art director and designer for Giorgetti, an Italian furniture company.

From the late 1970s onwards Krier has been one of the most influential neo-traditional architects and planners. He is best known for his ongoing development of Poundbury, an urban extension to Dorchester, UK for the Duchy of Cornwall under the guidance of the Prince of Wales and his Masterplan for Cayalá, an extension of Guatemala City. 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 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.