LEON KRIER

URBAN PLANNER

 ARCHITECT
ARCHITECTURAL THEORIST
ONE OF THE MOST INFLUENTIAL NEO-
TRADITIONAL ARCHITECTS AND PLANNERS
Satirist master planner

 famous as a provocateur than as a builder; the sketch is his

sword, and it seldom fails to prick

uncompromising anti-modernist attitude,

 New Urbanism movement

Architect Leon Krier argues for traditional urbanism

and mixed uses as key to the vitality of places and
cities..

PHILOSOPHIES
CRITIQUE OF ZONING
CRITIQUE OF INDUSTRIALIZATION
IDEA OF RECONSTRUCTION
Military History Museum by Daniel
Lebiskind
URBAN COMPONENTS
TYPES OF URBAN SPACE

Urban blocks are the most

important typological
element in the
composition of urban
spaces. The building block
is either the instrument to
form streets and squares
or it results from a pattern
of streets and squares.
SIZE OF A BUILDING BLOCK

Blocks are smallest in

urban centers and grow
larger towards the
periphery
The oversized blocks should be broken down into small
blocks by means of pedestrian streets and squares
NEW URBANISM promotes the creation and restoration of diverse, walkable, compact,
vibrant, mixed-use communities composed of the same components as conventional
development, but assembled in a more integrated fashion, in the form of complete
communities. These contain housing, work places, shops, entertainment, schools,
parks, and civic facilities essential to the daily lives of the residents, all within easy
walking distance of each other. New Urbanism promotes the increased use of trains and
light rail, instead of more highways and roads.

‘New Urbanism’, too, is something of a misnomer, since the nature of these settlements,
allegedly communitarian and pro-pedestrian, in fact discourages public transport and
relies on the private automobile. That, and the limiting of the population to owner-
inhabitants, imposes a middle-income limit on those who choose to live there, while
their policy excludes both industry and agriculture. It is arguable that really makes
them not New but Anti-urban.  (by Joseph Rykwert, architectural critic)
development of Poundbury - an Les Nouveau Quartier des Halles Alessandria, italy
urban extension to Dorchester Reconstruction proposal

WORKS
Poundbury
 Concept: Polycentric city

Generic Principles of Design

• Longevity
• Hierarchy
• Value
• Harmony
• Materials
• Craftsmanship
• Public Space
• Community
Longevity:
Design that creates streets
and buildings that will
cope with a variety of
uses during their lifetime.
Encourages: Design
solutions based on
examples that have
adapted well to change.
Discourages: Complex
buildings that are very
specific to current need.
Hierarchy:
A clear and legible ordering
system which recognises a
hierarchy between types of
buildings
or roads and their individual
parts in relation to the whole
Encourages: An
understanding of the relative
significance of parts of a
building or town and
easy navigation within each.
Discourages: Confusion and
over reliance on signage
Harmony:
Design that sounds its own
‘note’ and yet blends with
the local and natural
environment.
Encourages: Buildings and
towns whose various parts
work together and respect
the value of
the whole.
Discourages: A confused
and oppressive built
environment.
Public Space
A recognition that the design of public
areas including ‘street furniture’,
signage, and
lighting, is as important as the design of
private spaces, and should be designed
as part of
an harmonious whole.
Encourages: Harmonious and legible
public areas
Discourages: Visual intrusion and
clutter
Community
The carefully facilitated, early
involvement of the local community in
order to create places
which have a civilizing influence, which
meet people’s needs, desires and
aspirations, and
engender civic pride.
Encourages: A proactive, holistic
approach to planning.
Discourages: A reactive, piecemeal
approach to planning and a
compromised result.
Queen Mother Sq
Mixed Use: The masterplan as a flexible framework for diverse patterns of
investment and demand
Permeable Streets and Hierarchy of Public
Space
Codes, Stipulations and
Design Guidance