“I don’t build because I am an architect. I can create true architecture because I do not build.” Paradoxical as they may seem, the meaning behind those words captures one man’s simple but profound principles.
It was during those years of establishing himself as an architectural theorist that Krier said he did not build because he was an architect. The comment was partly a quip about how rare it then was for serious architects—architects committed to timeless beauty and enduring quality—to be commissioned to build anything. At a deeper level, it challenged the notion that architects should maximize how much they build out of devotion to productivity for its own sake, profit, or to keep up with shifting fashions.
