The Town Krier

Ever wake up in a cabin in the woods, in the mountains, perhaps next to a lake, and you stepped outside to inhale the fresh, crisp air? Was it not invigorating, a cleansing of the mind and body alike?

I had a similar feeling (by way of analogy) these past few days when discovering some refreshing creativity in two different realms: comedy and architecture. Having given both up for dead only served to heighten the enjoyment.

In the realm of comedy, I watched a short (4 min.) film clip from an outfit called Primitive Pictures, led by filmmaker Michael Wechsler. The Politically Correct Monster is about a young man who “goes on a date with the most politically correct girl of all time.” You can view it here; note that it may not be work-safe due to some profanity at the very end. (Hat tip: NoPasaran.)

I do not believe I have ever seen this topic treated, in film, with such unrelenting, merciless satire. Occasionally there is a reference to feminism or some other PC theme, but it is as rare as hen’s teeth to see it dissected to the bone in this manner.

Such treatment has been notably absent from the contemporary scene. The only major work that comes to mind is Fellini’s 1980 City of Women, his monumental demolition of feminism.

Let us hope that we will see more works like The Politically Correct Monster, and in feature-length films. If you happen to be familiar with anything of this nature, please do share the treasure with us.

The second breath of fresh air comes from across the pond, in the work of Luxembourg-born architect and urban planner Léon Krier. For decades, Krier has led the charge against the modernist catastrophe in European and American architecture, designing buildings and neighborhoods that make people feel comfortable and inspired. His tour de force is the new town of Poundbury in Dorset, England, designed from the ground up in accordance with his principles. (As you view the pictures on the linked website, keep in mind that although Krier is responsible for the town’s layout, the buildings were the work of Krier and many other architects.)

I have never been to Poundbury, so it is possible that I might find fault with elements of the design. Yet just viewing the pictures, I cannot recall the last time I looked at recently constructed towns or buildings and was struck with a strong desire to be there.

An interesting overview of Krier’s work is provided by Roger Scruton in his article “Cities for Living” in the Spring 2008 issue of City Journal (not yet available on their website). In typical Scrutonesque style, the stage is set:

Until recently, European architects have either connived at the evisceration of our cities or actively promoted it. Relying on the spurious rhetoric of Le Corbusier and Walter Gropius, they endorsed the totalitarian projects of the political elite, whose goal after the war was not to restore the cities but to clear away the “slums.” By “slums,” they meant the harmonious classical streets of affordable houses, seeded with local industries, corner shops, schools, and places of worship, that had made it possible for real communities to flourish in the center of our towns….European architecture schools no longer taught students the grammar of the classical Orders; they no longer taught how to understand moldings, or how to draw existing monuments, urban streets, the human figure, or such vital aesthetic phenomena as the fall of light on a Corinthian capital or the shadow of a campanile on a sloping roof….

One aspect of modernism that has had particularly deleterious effects, according to Krier, is the hiding of the structural frame behind a façade or curtain, usually a sheet of glass. This prevents the building from becoming an integral part of its environment. Explains Scruton:

Krier identifies the leading error of modernism as that introduced by Le Corbusier, Gropius, and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe: separating load-bearing and outward-facing parts….All relation to neighboring structures, to the street, and to the sky, is lost. The form conveys nothing beyond the starkness of its geometry….Modernist buildings are health catastrophes: sealed environments, dependent on a constant input of energy, and subject to the “sick-building syndrome” that arises when nobody can open a window or let in a breath of fresh air. Moreover, such buildings use no architectural vocabulary, so that one cannot “read” them as one does classical buildings. The passerby experiences this as a kind of rudeness. Modernist buildings exclude dialogue, and the void that they create around themselves is not a public space but a desertification.

Krier steps in with urban spaces that are livable, interesting to the eye, and designed to last. In Poundbury,

he conceived the town….as a single and continuous public space, organized around a town hall, each building contributing to the public vistas of which it is a part….It is now a thriving community, in which people live, work, and shop, and where residents can walk to everything that they need. It has the feel of a medieval town, though with spaces more suited to our busy age….

In the two cases I have outlined above, in comedy and in architecture, it is heartening to see brave souls who toss aside the PC claptrap like the rubbish that it is. May we see much more, and soon.

[Postscript: There is another interesting article in City Journal (this one available on line) that deals with problems in contemporary architecture, “New Urbanists Point the Way Forward" by Catesby Leigh.]