Drawings, doodles, and ideograms argue with ferocity and wit for traditional urbanism and architecture.
Architect Léon Krier's doodles, drawings, and ideograms make arguments in images, without the circumlocutions of prose. Drawn with wit and grace, these clever sketches do not try to please or flatter the architectural establishment. Rather, they make an impassioned argument against what Krier sees as the unquestioned doctrines and unacknowledged absurdities of contemporary architecture. Thus he shows us a building bearing a suspicious resemblance to Norman Foster's famous London “gherkin” as an example of “priapus hubris” (threatened by detumescence and “priapus nemesis”); he charts “Random Uniformity” (“fake simplicity”) and “Uniform Randomness” (“fake complexity”); he draws bloated “bulimic” and disproportionately scrawny “anorexic” columns flanking a graceful “classical” one; and he compares “private virtue” (modernist architects' homes and offices) to “public vice” (modernist architects' “creations”). Krier wants these witty images to be tools for re-founding traditional urbanism and architecture. He argues for mixed-use cities, of “architectural speech” rather than “architectural stutter,” and pointedly plots the man-vehicle-landneed ratio of “sub-urban man” versus that of a city dweller. In an age of energy crisis, he writes (and his drawings show), we “build in the wrong places, in the wrong patterns, materials, densities, and heights, and for the wrong number of dwellers”; a return to traditional architectures and building and settlement techniques can be the means of ecological reconstruction. Each of Krier's provocative and entertaining images is worth more than a thousand words of theoretical abstraction.

Drawing for Architecture (Writing Architecture)

Arts & Photography

Krier, Leon

Architecture

The MIT Press

Leon Krier - Profile 54 (Paper Only) (Architectural Design Profile)

wiley

Book by Junker, Patricia, Ligare, David, Krier, Leon

David Ligare: Paintings

Junker, Patricia

Ligare, David

David Ligare

Even as oversized McMansions continue to elbow their way into tiny lots nationwide, a much different trend has taken shape. This return to traditional architectural principles venerates qualities that once were taken for granted in home design: structural common sense, aesthetics of form, appropriateness to a neighborhood, and even sustainability. Marianne Cusato, creator of the award-winning Katrina Cottages, has authored and illustrated this definitive guide to what makes houses look and feel rightto the eye and to the soul. She teaches us the language and grammar of classical architecture, revealing how balance, harmony, and detail all contribute to creating a home that will be loved rather than tolerated. And she takes us through the do’s and don’ts of every element of home design, from dormers to doorways to columns. Integral to the book are its hundreds of elegant line drawingsclearly rendering the varieties of lintels and cornices, arches and eaves, and displaying avoid” and use” versions of the same elements side by side.

Get Your House Right: Architectural Elements to Use & Avoid

PENTREATH, BEN

Cusato, Marianne

Sammons, Richard

Sterling

Sick of McMansions? Marianne Cusato, creator of the award-winning Katrina Cottages, is a champion of traditional architectural principles: structural common sense, aesthetics of form, appropriateness to a neighborhood, and sustainability. She presents the definitive guide to what makes houses look and feel right, revealing the dos and don'ts of livable home design. Hundreds of elegant line drawings--rendering the varieties of architectural features and displaying “avoid” and “use” versions of the same elements side by side--make this an indispensable resource for designing and building a timelessly beautiful home.

Union Square & Co.

NOTE: Languages: French, English. Architect Léon Krier asks, “Can a war criminal be a great artist?” Speer, Adolf Hitler's architect of choice, happens to be responsible for one of the boldest architectural and urban oeuvres of modern times. First published in 1985 to an acute and critical reception, Albert Speer: Architecture 1932-1942 is a lucid, wide-ranging study of an important neoclassical architect. Yet is is simultaneously much more: a philosophical rumination on art and politics, good and evil. With aid from a new introduction by influential American architect Robert A. M. Stern, Krier candidly confronts the great difficulty of disentangling the architecture and urbanism of Albert Speer from its political intentions. Krier bases his study on interviews with Speer just before his death. The projects presented center on his plan for Berlin, an unprecedented modernization of the city intended to be the capital of Europe.

Albert Speer: Architecture 1932-1942

History & Criticism

The Monacelli Press

The Architecture of Community

Island Press

Leon Krier is one of the best-known—and most provocative—architects and urban theoreticians in the world. Until now, however, his ideas have circulated mostly among a professional audience of architects, city planners, and academics. In The Architecture of Community, Krier has reconsidered and expanded writing from his 1998 book Architecture: Choice or Fate. Here he refines and updates his thinking on the making of sustainable, humane, and attractive villages, towns, and cities. The book includes drawings, diagrams, and photographs of his built works, which have not been widely seen until now. With three new chapters, The Architecture of Community provides a contemporary road map for designing or completing today’s fragmented communities. Illustrated throughout with Krier’s original drawings, The Architecture of Community explains his theories on classical and vernacular urbanism and architecture, while providing practical design guidelines for creating livable towns. The book contains descriptions and images of the author’s built and unbuilt projects, including the Krier House and Tower in Seaside, Florida, as well as the town of Poundbury in England. Commissioned by the Prince of Wales in 1988, Krier’s design for Poundbury in Dorset has become a reference model for ecological planning and building that can meet contemporary needs.

Politics & Social Sciences

Philosophy

1992 first edition. Beautiful as new book in a near mint dust jacket. No edge wear. No rubbing. No internal markings. From private collection.

Leon Krier: Architecture & Urban Design 1967-1992

Academy Editions

This polemic is essential reading for anyone concerned with the state and direction of architecture and urban planning today.

Architecture: Choice or Fate

Andreas Papadakis Pub

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Krier, Leon. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Krier, Leon

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Krier, Leon. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Drawing for Architecture (Writing Architecture)

Leon Krier - Profile 54 (Paper Only) (Architectural Design Profile)

David Ligare: Paintings

Get Your House Right: Architectural Elements to Use & Avoid

Get Your House Right: Architectural Elements to Use & Avoid

Albert Speer: Architecture 1932-1942

The Architecture of Community

The Architecture of Community

Leon Krier: Architecture & Urban Design 1967-1992

Architecture: Choice or Fate