Alessandria, Città Nuova, Piazza Perspective
by Léon Krier
"Architecture is the artistic culture of Building. As an art, it
is concerned with the imitation and translation of the elements of building
into symbolic language, expressing in a fixed system of symbols and analogies
the origins of architecture in the laws of building. The condition of
architecture to exist as a public art attains to material and above all
intellectual permanence. It can be no business of architecture to express
ever-changing functions or Zeitgeist. Certain building types become associated
with certain functions, rituals and periods, and it is up to sculptural
or pictorial iconography to help and sustain these associations."
Léon Krier
Nahuel Huapi National Park Hotel, Argentina
( Main Elevation of Building Complex)
by Colum Mulhern (Luxembourg)
"Architecture is only concerned with the
erection of public buildings and monuments, with the construction of public
squares, sites and memorials. Architecture and building are not objects of
consumption but objects of use. They can only be reconstructed in a
perspective of material permanence. Without such permanence, without
architecture transcending the life span of its builders, no public space, no
collective expression such as art is ever possible."
Léon Krier
(Quotes from Léon Krier's keynote address at the UIA XV, Cairo, 1985)
Nahuel Huapi National Park Hotel, Argentina
(Side Elevation of Building Complex)
by Colum Mulhern (Luxembourg)
The Use and Abuse of Architecture
Centre Post Office, Windsor, Florida
by Scott Merrill and Georg Pastor
(Photo by Scott Merrill and Georg Pastor)
There exists neither authoritarian nor democratic architecture.There
exists only authoritarian and democratic ways of producing and using architecture.
A row of doric columns is not more authoritarian than
a tensile structure is democratic. Architecture is not political; it can
only be used politically."
Léon Krier
Schlossbrücke and Stadtschloss, Berlin (1885)
(Photo by F. Albert Schwartz)
Sammlung Märkisches Museum Berlin
"Where architecture exists it always transcends politics. Buildings can appear inhuman not through their architecture, but through their lack of architecture."
Léon Krier
Stadtschloss Berlin, View from Schinkel's 'Altes Museum'
and Lustgarten (1890)
(Photo: Bildarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz)
"Das Schloss?? Eine Ausstellung über die Mitte Berlins"
(Published by Ernst&Sohn Verlag, 1993)
"Buildings become inhuman when abstracted from architecture or dressed
in false architecture. Kitsch is both abstraction and false appearance.
There is neither reactionary nor revolutionary architecture."
Léon Krier
Lustgarten, Marx-Engels Platz, View from 'Altes Museum',
Berlin (1992)
(Photo: Private Collection Wilhelm von Boddien)
"Berlin?? Eine Ausstellung über die Mitte Berlins"
(Published by Ernst&Sohn Verlag, 1993)
"There is only architecture or its absence, that is: its abstraction.
There has never been protest against architecture. There has only
been protest against lack of architecture."
Léon Krier
(Quotes from Léon Krier's keynote address at the UIA XV, Cairo (1985)
Aerial View with Stadtschloss and Dom, Berlin (1930)
(Photo: Sammlung Eickemeyer, Berlin)
The Stadtschloss of Berlin organized
substantially the urban cohesion of the city's historic "Mitte" and
offered an elegant and historically dense building ensemble of great
architectural and sculptural refinement. It was one of the few
monuments which survived the Second World War with relatively minor
damage. The head of the DDR regime Walter Ulbrich ordered it to be
dismantled in 1950. The Stadtschloss ensemble was blown up piece by
piece in a systematic and destructive fury over several months'! It
was supposedly too much a dominant symbol of the 'Old Germany'!
A growing popular pressure in favor of a historical reconstruction
of the Berliner Stadtschloss has developed during the last years...The
unfatiguable Wilhelm von Boddien and the 'Historische Gesellschaft Berlin'
have provided both the economical, functional, cultural and urbanistic
evidences for an integral reconstruction process and contemporary efficiency
within the context of a reconstructed centre of a reunified Berlin and
Capital of a reunified Germany.
Stadtschloss in Berlin
(Photo by Gesellschaft Historisches Berlin)
"The 'Gesellschaft Historisches Berlin'
is committed to preserve, to complete and to eventually renovate in
a traditional manner the centre of Berlin and its historic
neighbourhoods. The society encompasses these objectives by
cultivating the history of Berlin, particularly its architectural
history and is decided to take influence in this context.
By means of exhibitions, lectures, discussions, seminars, guided
tours as well as publications, the society educates on history,
history of architecture and the urbanistic development of Berlin,
with a particular focus on popular education.
The Gesellschaft Historisches Berlin interacts with the political
authorities of the city and aims at empowering citizens' input in
the context of its objectives"
Gesellschaft Historisches Berlin
Berlin in 1939
(Photo by Gesellschaft Historisches Berlin)
"We can look at architecture in two ways: as a piece
of technology, a "machine for living"; or as just one part of
many things that go to make up a society. If we look at architecture as
one of the pieces of the huge jigsaw that makes up a society, it must
be bound up with the history, activities and symbols peculiar to that
society - in other words its customs and traditions. Once you accept that
architecture is a part of the unique identity of a society or community,
you have to accept that it is a part of the traditions of that community."
Robert Adam
"Tradition and Architecture"
(INTBAU launching conference, January 2002)
Public Housing in Al-Esch, Corner Building on Square (1986)
by Lucien Steil with Herr &Huyberechts, Luxembourg
(Drawing by Herr & Huyberechts)
The Reconstruction of Al-Esch
New Piazza in Al-Esch, Esch-sur-Alzette (1980)
by Lucien Steil
The whole historic city centre of Esch-sur-Alzette (a 25.000 inhabitants) was declared renovation (tabula rasa) area for a modernist reconstruction end of 70s. The counter-project and polemics of Lucien Steil declared this very threatened historic city centre as the paradigm of reconstruction. Both public pressure and a municipal financial crisis led to a traditional masterplan for a mixed-use urban reconstruction including a substantial percentage of public housing.
The roofs of Al-Esch, Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg
(Photo by Antoinette Lorang)
Operation Esch-Centre, Project II (1966)
by Group Tetra, Luxembourg
Project Urb-Esch, Central Piazza (1960)
by Association of Architects and Municipality
Sketchbook Study for a Piazza (1981)
by Lucien Steil
An Alternative Project: The City
Reconstruction of Al-Esch, Axionometry of Central Piazza
(1979)
by Lucien Steil
"The project proposition is based on a radical choice in favour of the traditional city: the neighbourhood, the block, the square, the piazza, the street, etc.. These time-tested elements of the historic European city can restore a viable structure and a vital urbanity in damaged and destroyed urban and suburban contexts!"
Reconstruction of Al-Esch, Central Piazza (1983)
by Lucien Steil
Reconstruction of Al-Esch, Axionometric Piazza Study (1980)
by Lucien Steil
Historic Center of Esch, Reconstruction Proposal (1983)
by Lucien Steil
Reconstruction of Al-Esch, Central City Area
by Lucien Steil
"The complexity of functions, the precision of the urban spaces
and particularly the revalorization of public space (as an alternative
to the introverted and alienating tyranny of privacy of suburbia) will
be instrumental in the necessary revitalization of social and civic life,
the redevelopment of urban freedom and autonomy, the emancipation of real
citizenship in the renaissance of the traditional urban neighbourhood!"
Lucien Steil
Léon Krier was substantially supporting and influencing
with very insightful design consultancy the "Project
for the Reconstruction of Al-Esch" by Lucien Steil.
Information provided by: http://ah.bfn.org/a/DCTNRY/vocab.html