Léon Krier’s character and his approach to his work were inseparably intertwined. Warm, witty, kind, fierce, direct, and with an exceptional clarity of vision, he was brilliant, and he did many brilliant things. Léon was also, as all of us, a mere human, and he advocated for humanely designed buildings and places in which all people could live with dignity alongside beauty. INTBAU has benefited from Léon’s interest and support for all its 25 years of existence. What Léon helped to start for traditional building, architecture, and urbanism, the INTBAU network will help to continue. Thank you, Léon – and thank you, Irene.

Harriet Wennberg

Executive Director, INTBAU

A few moments shared with Léon Krier across the years

Léon Krier maintained a longstanding and multifaceted relationship with the INTBAU network. Over the years, he contributed in many capacities: as an advisor, author, speaker, juror, and collaborator. His involvement spanned local and international initiatives, from the early days of INTBAU’s publications to more recent awards, exhibitions, and educational programmes.

His reflections on tradition and architecture were included in Tradition Today: Continuity in Architecture and Society, INTBAU’s first publication in 2008. In his essay, he recalled the early years of the Poundbury project and the cultural resistance faced by those advocating for human-scale, traditional urbanism.

In May 2014, Krier delivered the keynote address Cities for Today and Tomorrow at Tradition and Heritage in the Contemporary Image of the City, an international symposium held in Kraków, organised by INTBAU Poland. This lecture became the foundation for the essay published under the same title in the 2015 monograph edited by Tomasz Jeleński, Stanisław Juchnowicz, and Ewelina Woźniak-Szpakiewicz. His address invited participants to confront pressing questions about urban heritage, the sacred narratives embedded in architecture, and the challenges of sustaining tradition in the globalised city. Inspired by his provocation, contributors to the volume explored themes such as the sacred architectural narrative, urban spatiality, the tensions between tradition and contemporaneity, and the cultural memory embedded in the landscapes of European cities. Krier’s intervention was a catalyst for a rich and diverse dialogue, situating classical and vernacular architecture at the heart of contemporary urban discourse.

His collaboration with INTBAU Spain began in 2010 and continued without interruption. It led to numerous publications, lectures, and interviews, including the Spanish edition of La arquitectura de la comunidad and his foreword to Donald Gray: The Most Beautiful Designs of Traditional Neighborhoods in Andalucia. His work featured in the Timeless Architecture exhibition, and he participated in editorial projects such as Medio siglo sin paradigma. Over more than a decade, he was also a committed juror for the Rafael Manzano Prize and the Richard H. Driehaus Architecture Competition, both organised by the Traditional Building Cultures Foundation in collaboration with INTBAU Spain and INTBAU Portugal.

In recent years, Krier continued to offer his time and guidance across the INTBAU network, from students to senior leadership. In 2023, he served as a jury member for the Bruges Summer School of Architecture and Crafts, where he spent many hours advising students on their projects. That same year, he wrote an essay for Classicism at Home, a monograph celebrating the work of Alireza Sagharchi, Chair of the INTBAU Board of Trustees. In 2024, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the UK’s Traditional Architecture Group Awards, hosted by INTBAU UK, and served for many years on the jury for the European Prize of Architecture Philippe Rotthier, organised by INTBAU Belgium.

His contributions to INTBAU’s mission—promoting traditional building, architecture, and urbanism—were constant and generous. We will always be grateful for the time, insight, and support he offered our community.

Reflections from the INTBAU Community

It is with deep sadness that I mark the passing of Leon Krier, a visionary architect, urbanist, and dear friend, whom I had the privilege of knowing for over 40 years. Leon was not only my teacher and mentor, but a constant source of inspiration, wisdom, and encouragement throughout my life and career.

From our earliest encounters, Leon’s clarity of thought, his deep convictions, and his unwavering commitment to the principles of humane architecture left a lasting imprint on me. It was through his words of encouragement and support that I found the confidence to establish my own architectural practice—an act he championed with characteristic generosity.

His influence extended far beyond his built work; he shaped generations of architects through his writings, lectures, and, above all, his personal relationships. His legacy lives on not only in the cities and ideas he shaped, but in the lives he touched.

Leon’s place in history is secured as the vanguard of New Traditional Architecture and a true revolutionary. He remains the moral compass and a hero to generations of architects who follow his guiding light.

May he rest in peace, the world is a better place because of his legacy and a forlorn one without him.

Alireza Sagharchi

Chair of the Board of Trustees, INTBAU

We are deeply saddened by the loss of this great man and friend. His activism and drawings in the 70-s at AAM guided us through our university. We first met him in 1989 and many occasions since then. Member of juries of great prizes as Rotthier or Manzano he still was interested in the work of motivated students. The picture is taken at the Summerschool in Bellem, organized by La Table Ronde. He is in our heart, his legacy in drawings and books will be with us the rest of our lives and in the lives of many after us. Thankful of his contributions and in grief we are. Our thoughts go to Irene and his children and friends. May he rest in peace.

Mieke Bosse

INTBAU Netherlands

I met Léon in 2024, when he accepted an invitation to the INTBAU Conference in Kraków. The room at his keynote speech was overflowing, and he drew energy from the crowd. The lecture, planned for 45 minutes, was extended twice, and the audience still could not get enough. His speech was sharp, provocative and to the point. With passion rare at conferences, Léon discussed all the most important threads of his work as a designer and critic of contemporary urbanism and civilisation. Later, I received his consent to edit the transcript into a paper that appeared in proceedings under the title Cities for today and tomorrow. 

We all in INTBAU admired his works. No other author could match him in the strength of arguments for traditional architecture and urbanism. He was unmatched in the power of his message and the scale of his influence. However, he also radiated an unprecedented charisma in person. I had the opportunity to talk with him several more times during INTBAU events. He always radiated the same positive energy, and the certainty that when the world goes astray, one must tirelessly push against the current. He was an untired conversationalist, young at heart, with that extraordinary twinkle in his eye, and a feisty sense of humour. He will be missed, but the memory of him and his legacy will live and thrive.

Tomasz Jeleński

Chair of INTBAU Poland

Chair of the INTBAU International Council of Chapters, and INTBAU Trustee

We are deeply saddened by the passing of Léon Krier, who was for many years a friend and collaborator of INTBAU Spain and the Traditional Building Cultures Foundation, a member of the jury for the Rafael Manzano Prize and the Richard H. Driehaus Architecture Competition, and a great support for all the projects we have carried out.

Leon Krier died Tuesday 17th of June in Palma de Mallorca, with the same quiet courage with which he lived his life. He was a craftsman, the son of a tailor and a pianist, who distilled the beauty of the cities and buildings he saw into their essential attributes and used the same cloth to imagine and reimagine places for people to live together. He was gentle but uncompromising in everything he did, preferring to withdraw than be drawn into political skirmishes, inhuman bureaucracy or pollute his designs. He created beauty with his hands every day: in his drawings, the beautiful piano music he played, the fruit he carefully prepared every morning for his beloved wife. He suffered viscerally for those in hardship and was disillusioned with the course of the world. Without ego or fear of voicing unpopular ideas, he remained unwaveringly true to his ideals of beauty, community and friendship.

INTBAU Spain

We would like to express our deep affection and admiration for, and our eternal gratitude to, Léon Krier. Every time that death abruptly takes a cherished friend from us we think of the things we should have said, of the questions that will forever remain unanswered, of the lost opportunity to meet one last time. And thus death teaches us, in our sorrow, one of life’s most pressing lessons: let us not wait!

Two generations separated us from Léon Krier but this distance created between us the most beautiful relationship that exists beyond love: that of a master to his pupils. Léon Krier was a master – he would probably have disagreed but so be it – he was a master for the countless young people who, having read his books and learned from his exceptional clarity of expression, thought with his concepts and spoke with his words.

We remember those days in 2023 when he came to help us with our Bruges summer school. He spent many hours with our students, sleeves rolled up to his elbows, pencil in hand, correcting plans and offering advice. His partner, Irène, who watched him from afar with detached amusement, told us that she knew Léon’s true vocation was to teach. When a student approached him timorously, arms full of his books, requesting his signature, Léon gently laid his eyes upon him and engaged in lengthy conversation. Léon was forthcoming with his time: he gave of it generously to those who approached him for advice. He may have been famous but he still listened attentively and patiently, and, even if he barely knew you, gave you his trust.

To gain Léon Krier’s trust was a wonderful gift, a gift that brought you up to his level, a gift that, beyond life and death, enjoins you to remain faithful to his principles, in particular to the first of them: freedom, total freedom of the sovereign mind, the supreme freedom of choosing how to live and how to die; and the enjoyment that comes from such freedom. Nothing could better sum up Léon Krier’s philosophy than the words of St Augustine: ama et fac quod vis (act as you desire, so long as you act with love).

Léon liked neither dogma nor sects. He would not have wanted his intellectual legacy to be adopted by a group of faithful followers or to become the precepts of some obscure gathering of devotees: Léon Krier’s legacy is for every architect and, indeed, for all of humanity. Our duty is to make it known. Recognition of the deceased is perpetuated by our memory of them: Léon Krier may be dead, but he has not left us. The light of a dead star lingers on gently, like semaphores that shine a light in the dark path of existence. Let those who live follow these lights and never walk alone.

La Table Ronde de l’Architecture, host to INTBAU Belgium

I met Léon only once, two years ago, but that brief encounter left a lasting impression. His wit was sharp, his humour dry, and his views on architecture and society were as incisive as they were unconventional.

Our conversation continued by email: a steady exchange of unpublished papers, recommendations and reviews of urban sites across Europe, and annotated reading lists, including firm views on what not to bother with. The correspondence lasted until the end.

His influence on my own work has been considerable. For me, and for many others, Léon remains a quiet but constant guide in the pursuit of a more humane urbanism.

Martin Lindestreng

 INTBAU Sweden

Let us honour the life and achievements of Leon Krier, one of most original and talented creative minds to have informed current architecture and urbanism.

Since discussions of style quickly turn partisan, Krier’s legacy as an architect is perhaps best left for future historians. Yet even in the immediacy of loss, and irrespective of standpoint, his contributions as a critic and urbanist are unassailable.

The old adage that an image can say more than reams of words is proven by Krier’s output as an illustrator and cartoonist. Variously analytical, ironic, humorous, polemical and visionary, his cartoons possess an unerring ability to sum up complex problems with a stroke of the pen. They capture the condition of the city, both modern and traditional, distilling fundamental lessons such as the liveability of mixed-use places where the necessities of life can be reached by foot in 10 or 15 minutes.

Simple truths like these, uniting common sense and a yearning for beauty and conviviality, found parallel expression in Krier’s writings and projects. Not forgetting his personal teaching and charisma, his combined production has arguably done more to counter the too-often alienating effects of industrialized urbanism than any other individual since the second World War.

The combined effect of this prodigious production has been sometimes direct, as at Poundbury, and sometimes indirect, as with many communities created by those he influenced or collaborated with (not forgetting his similarly multi-talented brother Rob). Cities for a Small Planet by Richard Rogers did much to promote kindred approaches to urbanism under the radar, as it were, for the book’s huge debt to Krier went unacknowledged.

By one means or other, Krier helped turn the tanker of modernist planning away from lines of slab-blocks and sprinklings of skyscrapers, and towards streets, squares and urban principles that most people prefer. Krier’s humanist legacy can only grow as more places are emerging across the globe that bear the imprint of a fearless genius animated by warmth and passion.

Mark Wilson Jones

Architect and architectural historian

Chair of Traditional Architecture Group, host to INTBAU UK

With profound sadness, we bid farewell to one of the most brilliant and influential minds in contemporary architectural thought. Krier was a fierce critic of dehumanized modern architecture, proposing instead a vision of urbanism based on human scale, enduring beauty, and cultural continuity. His theoretical work, exemplified in books such as “The Architecture of Community,” and his practical involvement, such as in the planning of the town of Poundbury in England (where he worked as a consultant to King Charles III), demonstrated that his ideals were not merely abstract concepts, but viable solutions to contemporary urban problems. His death represents an irreparable loss for all those who believe in the possibility of harmonious, ordered, and sustainable cities, but his intellectual legacy will remain as inspiration for future generations of architects and urbanists committed to living tradition and human dignity in the built environment.

Lucas Lima

INTBAU Brazil

Léon Krier was one of the most influential figures in the contemporary movement for traditional architecture and urbanism. His legacy as an architect, theorist, and teacher has been fundamental to the defence of the human-scaled city, liveable scale, enduring beauty, and the cultural value of building traditions.

Krier was not only a critic of the consequences of modern urbanism, but also a visionary who proposed viable alternatives deeply rooted in history, geography, and community life. His thought has inspired generations of architects and urbanists around the world, and his imprint is present in many of the projects, plans, and teachings shared within our network.

From the Traditional Architecture and Urbanism Network of Mexico, we join the international mourning for his passing. Today more than ever, we renew our commitment to the principles he so passionately defended: cultural continuity, the city as a shared work, and the art of dwelling with dignity.

On behalf of all members of the network, we extend our sincerest condolences to his family, friends, colleagues, and disciples.

His departure leaves not only a void in the fields of architecture and urbanism, but also a profound responsibility to continue spreading, fighting for, and contributing to the improvement of cities in every part of the world. Future generations will face challenges that call us to unite and firmly uphold the principles that shape architecture and urbanism relevant to each place and time, always reflecting the tradition and essence of each locality.

May Léon Krier (1946–2025) rest in peace.
His vision will continue to guide our work.

INTBAU Mexico

I am deeply saddened by the news that Léon Krier is no longer with us. A gentle Giant who generously shared with us his wisdom, light and sensibility, his positive and truthful way of seeing this World. An irreplaceable loss… Yet, his legacy lives in each of us, touched by his genius, forever!

A truly wonderful and huge personality.

I hope he is watching us from above, a bit amused, but deeply touched by all the Love sent to him by all his admirers and friends…

Georgia Cristea

INTBAU Romania/ INTBAU UK