Dobrović in Dubrovnik: A Venture in Modern Architecture
09/10/2019
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The Gallery, 70 Cowcross Street
Dobrović in Dubrovnik: A Venture in Modern Architecture - an illustrated talk by Dr Krunoslav Ivanišin of the Faculty of Architecture, University of Zagreb
The Gallery, 70 Cowcross Street, London EC1M 6EJ - Wednesday 9th October, 2019, 6.30pm to 8.30pm
The first of two lectures on 20th century architecture in Croatia will be given by Krunoslav Ivanisin who is is a practising architect and professor in the Architecture Faculty at the University of Zagreb. In the book, Dobrovic in Dubrovnik, Krunoslav looks at modern architecture constructed in the nineteen thirties in the Mediterranean landscape of the south Dalmatian coast of the Adriatic Sea and brings the Croatian architect Nikola Dubrovic (1897 - 1967) to the attention of an English-speaking audience.
The second lecture by Darja Radovic Mahecic, author of the monumental work on modern architecture in Croatia will take place at the Croatian Embassy on Conway Street, London W1T 6BN in November (date to be confirmed). The details are being finalised and booking will open shortly. Both lectures are thanks to a collaboration between C20 and the British Croatian Society.
Nikola Dobrović was born in the Hungarian city of Pécs, 1897. He attained his degree in architecture in 1923 from the High Technical School in Prague. After gaining experience in prominent Prague architectural offices and in his own practice, he moved to Dubrovnik in the early nineteen-thirties with the mission of bringing modern architecture to this small but historically very important city on the Croatian coast. He was invited in 1930 by Dubrovnik municipal conservator Kosta Strajnić, to explain to the authorities what modern architecture actually was. To depict in the local press the exemplary architecture that would be suited to the new, modern Dubrovnik, Strajnić put forward Dobrović’s radical project for hotel-Kursalon on Pile, in close proximity to the most monumental part of the medieval city walls, as an alternative to the eclectic project by the Viennese architect Alfred Keller. As for Dobrović, although his project was never to be realized, his entrance to Dubrovnik was truly grand. In the short timespan that followed, less than a decade, he managed to construct a series of houses-machines, all of which characteristically embody the ideas of the heroic, international period of modern architecture.
Further information on Dobrović’s work between 1930 and 1940 in Dubrovnik can be seen here https://www.transfer-arch.com/reference/dobrovic/
Members’ price: £8.00 Non members: £12.00 Members of the British Croatian Society: £8.00 - Ticket price includes a glass of wine
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