Krier Criticises Architects

Leon Krier released an attack on his contemporaries when he labelled some architects as 'idiots' who build 'absurd shapes'.

The architect, who reached infamy when he designed the Poundbury the small village in Dorset, commissioned by the Prince of Wales was talking at the launch of his new book The Architectural Tuning of Settlements.

'You cannot build a 30m-long cantilever that is going the wrong way with bricks, mortar and wood. Now we have idiots who can build the most absurd shapes and they stay up. We are in a culture of excess.'

He also had something to say about the Governments plans to build eco-towns:

'There is no such thing as an "eco-town",' said Krier. 'The government instructed many millions of new homes to be built, but under what conditions? Because the conditions are that the oil will be cheap for another 50 years. But it won't, and that will cut down so much on our capacity to travel and to extend towns beyond their limits.

'We'll have to go back to traditional towns, not out of choice, as I thought, but it will be out of fate. There won't be choice and it will be dramatic.'