ACADEMIC BOOK REVIEW – BOOK TITLE
(LOOK FOR A LOGO OF A JOURNAL)
BOOK REVIEW ARCHITECTURE OF COMMUNITY
Journal Name Year, Volume, page number Web page of the Journal
Léon Krier, The architecture of the community, March 17, 2011, 496pp, ISBN 9781597265799, 44.99$, (PBK)
REVIEWED BY: Benavides, Mauricio. Franco Pérez, fperez.arq@uisek.edu.ec Mbenavides.arq@uisek.edu.ec INTRODUCTION The book the architecture of the community will sit in a criticism of modern urbanism and looks for alternatives to face the problems of contemporary urbanism of the criticism and ideas of the author. Leon Krier has experience in the fields of urbanism and ideology in architecture, this book is a complete compilation of Krier's ideas on the architectural and urban aspects of human settlements, the reason why he seeks in this text to demonstrate the deterioration of urbanism by moving to the sub -urbanism and how modernists have mistakenly handled concepts such as the house, forgetting that architecture is part of the urban environment, and not working it alone so to speak the main theme of the book is criticism of the international style in architecture. Krier denounces the failure of "modernism" and its deficiency when dealing with spaces, he values traditional architecture in the city, since in the past architecture and Cities tried to show a latent meaning, something that modernism has forgotten and has only focused on both technological and functional advance, sacrificing the value of space. In a way these ideas are presented with drawings or illustrations, ideograms where he shows his position in terms of architecture and how it should recover its traditional and more natural bases. The text seeks to recover and achieve the beauty of the city. It is a review of urban projects having to recover the old values of traditional architecture. It raises the debate between architecture and traditional urbanism versus modernism. This text seems to us to be a good reference to understand how the city works and how it has changed since the modern movement, this allows us to use this text as a reference in classes on urban theory and criticism of the modern city, Many of the ideas that are exposed in it, based and the experience of the author, help us to better understand the operation of the modern and traditional city, with this comparison present in the book it is very useful for teaching and for understanding the changes that are have presented at different times.
The book tries to reveal the ideas of the past as an area of which society cannot ignore, the problem of new urbanism according to krier, it seems that he is correct since in the text he contrasts the functioning of a city with a historicist model versus the image of the new world where much spatial value has been sacrificed for structures designed only for visual areas, forgetting what these should bring to society, However, the European vision would be different from the North American one, due to problems of its cities they were different and second because the old continent was the homeland of classicism and the more respectful approaches to it.
BOOK REVIEW Classicism was far away and was something false. Perhaps that is why his review was so much more ironic and irreverent. But in return, urban problems were of a different nature. American cities were expanding in an extraordinary way creating immense bedroom suburbs characterized by single-family housing and compulsory automobile use. These low-density expanses were disappearing natural landscapes and forcing enormous consumption of resources and energy, but, above all, they were dehumanizing communities. Leon Krier is an architect and urban planner who works thinking of the past as a concept of things that were carried out in a more rationalized way, we as students even without a concrete basis in the history of traditional community construction appear several doubts that the book little by little analyzed and that currently apart from practitioners like Leon Krier is observed in the design of modern urban places, which have lost their direction and direction, this book is composed of fundamental information in the design of good and interesting buildings urban places, in this text you can find a direct reference to the extremism and excess of modern design that we can see today and likewise determine the understanding that the excessive construction of skyscrapers results in the syndrome of expansion of megacities that in turn they generate suburbs which do not satisfy the global vision of the residents. In all his work, Krier shows a traditional sense of moderation and humility, which moves us away from the continuous copying of good architecture and urban landscapes, to the consecutive principles that have created excellent places and rich in concept, it is to these principles that Krier guides the reader through analysis. The book is well illustrated with hand drawings and photographs of built projects, culminating in the Dorchester, England, city of Poundbury. Krier understands that the context of the city is the end and where good architecture lives. It is in city design that socially important buildings can find their proper monumental expression, and the context of everything, the vernacular urban landscape, is established and maintained and it is in Poundbury with 40% social housing that Krier has created a model for a truly credible and sustainable future. The question here is how we could know that this approach is correct, to whom one can turn for information, Leon defines it well and is understanding the place based on the responses and activities of those who live in the place.
This book provides a comprehensive point of view of the environment built in cities, here the author's graphics and words close the gap between human settlement and architecture, this book is quite eloquent as it makes a connection between the many human elements found In the activities carried out by human settlements and their relationships between buildings, landscapes and civic spaces, it is interesting how Krier makes you think, like many of the new urban planners of the 20th and 21st centuries, about new ways of Dealing with public plurality and the complexities of urbanity, it is important to note how Krier gives an exhaustive lesson in architecture, and the satisfying way he finds is to destroy the myths of modernism to pieces and expose his false prophecies. However, the text never goes beyond the most superficially descriptive, often involving comparisons and an appeal to common sense, although Krier manages to show and point out his ideas and Universidad Internacional SEK – 2020-3
the idea of his work using his characteristic caricatures and how absurd the patterns are. of modern expansion, he has no explanation of why such patterns would exist without taking the idea that it could be just a great conspiracy, and he has even less to say about the community, which is strange considering that the word is found. in the title, it is as if in the vocabulary of neo-traditional architects community and space have become subjects of the same meaning for this reason, Krier produces a very sharp lesson in architecture, but does not provide information on morphology, and he really can't develop a model of urbanism that isn't just largescale architecture so it's no surprise that his disciples they have practiced urban planning in the same way as him.
In itself this text is a series of short texts where the author firmly communicates his neo-traditional point of view on urban development, explaining, for example, the essential difference between modernity and modernism or how it should be urbanized and densified using the example as a starting point and for this use the Washington Mall in search of proposing these strategies this book as we already mentioned is vibrantly animated with its own plans and drawings, as well as for example the use of abundant, ingenious and sometimes provocative sketches of drawings encouraged, Krier as this great mind of urban planning is not only a distinguished scholar, but also designed several projects consistent with his principles, including the city of Poundbury on the estates of the Prince of Wales consistent with these activities perhaps, he has much confident in the influence of planners and doesn't seem to be too concerned with economic realities even cu and we p We can find a suitable complement for the development of projects and the vision of managing cities and communities. On the other hand, the book has good intentions, one of them is to promote drawing in the readers who are mostly architecture students, which allows to encourage and promote hand drawing in them, this is a positive point that allows the development of ideas and the ability to explain them by this means, in addition the author uses this resource whenever he can show not only his ideas but also the time to explain details in this case about the city and the architecture in it, at turning each page we can find these drawings that make it easier for us to read and understand each point, but these do not have to be complex and very detailed, in many cases they are simple sketches that want an idea or explain a certain point, we must not forget This book is a compilation of the author's experience, therefore most of his ideas are linked to his personal opinion and how to observe citizenship, beginning with a first context of what refers to the idea and followed this accompanied by the criticism of the modern movement.
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Figure 1. example of leon krier's ideas and how he represents them in his book
CONCLUSION This book provides detailed drawings and images to illustrate Krier's theories of classical urbanism and architecture, while providing practical guidelines for creating attractive and livable cities. The book also describes a diagnosis, a cure, a critique, and a project, and presents a common sense approach to urban planning REFERENCES
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