Home ›

Notes on The Architecture of Community

Submitted by aimee on Wed, 08/19/2009 - 11:07.

The Architecture of Community: By Leon Krier

Themes

  • Two types of Modern Architecture
    One: "An official, standardized , international-style architect's architecture that may be perceived as arrogant or even provocative;"
    Two: "and a private architecture, often based on regional models, that attempts to blend naturally and harmoniously with the architecture of existing landscapes and cities." The former a result of public commissions and competitions and the latter the result of private initiatives. (7)
  • Modernist and Modernism

    • modern has a chronological meaning, indicating time, the contemporary period.
    modernist is an ideological designation...this creates confusion because of modernism's claim to be the only legitimate embodyment of modernity.

  • Pluralism and Democracy
    "Pluralism does not necessarily mean a confusion of styles, but rather a respect for differences."(11)
  • True and False Pluralism
    "What cannot be united is best separated. But such a division requires that the differences be recognized and clearly articulated. This represents the condition for true plurality." (19)

  • Political Pluralism to Architectural Pluralism
    Democracy is not an ideal form of government, but is preferable to tyranny (Aristotle) and a plurality of architectures is necessary to represent the diversity and tolerance of a democracy. "The theoretical and practical chasm created by fifty years of dogma has ravaged not only cities but minds as well. The new architectural metatheories , the new dogmas of uncertainty, irony, deconstruction, rupture, discontinuity, and the ersatz are contrary to reason, to any logical thought process." (13)
  • The Authority of the Architect in a Democracy; designing for a democracy
  • The Authority of Traditional Architecture
    "It is a pronounced market trend that transcends fluctuations in taste and fashion."(15)
  • Form follows Content
  • Name-able objects vs So-called objects
  • The Arbitrarily Uniform and the Uniformly Arbitrary

    • "...there exists a direct link between the problems of our cities and the planning language (37)."

    Definitions:

    a city is made up of streets and squares, building blocks and monuments.
    traditional and modern aren't necessarily antagonistic notions, ...traditional (artisan) building techniques using predominately natural building materials tend to produce objects for long term use.
    modernist (industrial) building techniques predominately using synthetic building materials tend to produce objects for short term consumption.
    a transect (general) is a path along which one records and counts occurances of the phenomenon of study. (new urbanism) records the varieties of land use from an urban core to a rural boundary.

  • On Industrial Planning and Functional Zoning

    • Charter of Athens 1931: popularized functional zoning
    -an instrument for industrial expansion
    -leads to a breakup of poly functional settlements into mono functional zones (residential,
    educational, recreational, business, industrial, administrative).

  • Zoning:

    • 1. you can only accomplish one thing at one place at one time
    2. daily, it mobilizes all citizens to accomplish even the smallest tasks. To this end it creates waste.
    3. destroys city centers and centrality
    4. The primary cause of the squandering of land, energy, and time

  • Urban Community

    • "...first and foremost a community governed by everyday material concerns and self interest."

  • Re-developing Suburbia into Urban environments(108)

    • "The urban economy will no longer grow by expansion into the surrounding countryside or the over-development of historic centers, but by the redevelopment, maturation, opening up, completion and internal growth of the suburbs..."

  • How To

    • 1. abrogation of functional zoning practices
    2. redrafting of land use plans
    3. revision of urban development programs

    See (110)

  • The Need to Reform Development Programs
  • Building Codes

    • -severely limit recessed buildings. Non-recessed buildings help to define streets.
    -dispersal of civic uses.
    -poly-centric cities or cities within cities with a 10 min walk to major goods/services.

  • Streets

    • -positioning of landmark buildings....don't miss focus.
    -creating vistas
    -use architectural elements, curvy street lines, and general character to control traffic speeds without having to employ bumps, electronic devices, speed islands, etc.

  • The Masterplan

    • -checkerboard residential and commercial sites and blocks to avoid functional zoning monotony

  • Geometry of Urban Patterns
  • Type, Shape, and Character of Urban Spaces
  • Single Lot Blocks, Multi Lot Blocks and their Architecture
  • Against Skyscrapers

    • -vertical cul-de-sacs
    -high buildings/low ceilings vs. low buildings high ceilings.
    -cap the story level but let ceiling height fluctuate to create a more interesting skyline.
    -what will we do when there is no more oil?
    -monuments get dwarfed and there visual stature becomes obsolete.

  • Numbers and Misc.

    • 2:1 plot size vs density
    5 story limit
    -reserve elevators for the disabled.

  • Artificial Lighting of Public Spaces