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KATARXIS
Polemics

This page is reserved for polemics, debates and interviews. This first issue presents a virtual debate with statements by influential architects and intellectuals on the issue of classicism. Based on real and virtual quotes, the debate is fictitiously edited by KATARXIS

Sources:Skyline 2/83(Debate Peter Eisemann-Leon Krier)

Peter Eisenmann: " There are only perfect ideas in the classical ideology. However today, where the elements of cosmology are no longer the same, we cannot return to a classical system. "

Leon Krier: " Our goal as artists and architects consists in understanding that universal system and that universal order which allow us to produce artistical artefacts, in the same way in which nature is creating individual beings. This is what makes classicism: It represents the fundamental system which allows us to create objects of timeless beauty. "

Peter Eisenman: " Classicism encompasses the idea of perfection as it can be encountered in Nature. As I said already, it is not possible anymore today to represent this classical concept of perfection -of harmony between Man and Nature, because this ideal state has been destroyed by forces generated by mankind. One cannot continue to use classical means of representation, because, what they represent, does not exist anymore.

Leon Krier: " It is absurd to prohibit good architecture because we live in terrible times. "

Peter Eisenmann: " Leon, come on, you cannot build this way anymore today! "

Leon Krier: " You can't, but I can! "

Leon Krier and Peter Eisenmann

House Krier Seaside

" Modernism is not just a failure; it has been a huge mistake. "

Roger Scruton

"The Future is Classical"
(www.opendemocracy.com)

kaltreisblue200.jpg

House Krier in Windsor, Florida by Leon Krier

" Modernism's philosophic fallacy lies in the infantile ambition to replace the fundamental principles of traditional architecture and urbanism in their entirety. Those architects who claim today to be inventing the architecture and urbanism of the twenty-first century are clearly even more foolish than the masters of early "modernism". Modernism can no longer proclaim itself, against worldwide evidence, to be the sole legitimate representative and embodiment of modernity. "

Leon Krier