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León Krier, Architect Whose Classical Work Won a Royal Ally, Dies at 79
León Krier, whose city plans, building sketches and ardent manifestoes on behalf of classical architecture and urban planning left a lasting mark on contemporary design, most notably in the form of Poundbury, a British town he created with the support of the future King Charles III, died on June 17 near his vacation home in Palma de Mallorca, Spain. He was 79.
His wife, Irene Krier, did not provide a cause but said he had recently been diagnosed with inoperable colorectal cancer.
Starting in the mid-1970s, Mr. Krier (pronounced CREE-er) was a leading voice in his generation's rejection of Modernist architecture and urban planning, attacking it as soulless and given to inhuman gigantism.
A skyscraper, he told The New York Times in 2024, 'is an immoral act.'
Mr. Krier called for a return to classical architecture and traditional ideas of community building: interspersing homes and civic spaces, using local materials and keeping everything low enough and close enough together to avoid reliance on mechanical transportation, whether elevators or automobiles.
The overwhelming majority of Mr. Krier's designs remained on paper, in part because of his unwillingness to compromise, but also because he sometimes seemed indifferent to seeing them built. 'I am a good architect because I don't build,' he often said.
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