The latest collection from the Croatian furniture design company Prostoria is inspired by the local modern architectural heritage.
The capital of Croatia, Zagreb, is rich in monumental brutalist constructions, modern buildings built between the two wars, and spectacular monuments called spomeniks. Although modernism has been the subject of varying perceptions in many countries over the past half-century, the relevance of modernism has never been disputed in Zagreb, according to architect and architectural historian Maroje Mrduljaš. The 2018 MoMA exhibition “Toward a Concrete Utopia – Architecture in Yugoslavia” in New York, which has aimed at a deeper understanding of its social role of the 1948-1980 period of Yugoslav architecture, has always been an important part of the city’s identity, and has contributed greatly to global canonization. Based on this architectural heritage, the Croatian furniture manufacturer Prostoria designed its new furniture collection.
The furniture was shot in and inspired by modern buildings, namely the Vatroslav Lisinski Concert Hall (1958-1973, Marijan Haberle, Minka Jurković, Tanja Zdvořak), the Zagreb City Hall (1955-1959, Kazimir Ostrogović), Pučko otvoreno učili Zagreb educational institution (1955-1961, Radovan Nikšić, Ninoslav Kučan) and Kockica (1961 – 1968, Ivan Vitić).
According to Mrduljaš, modernism refers to rationality, the lack of dogmatism, openness and a willingness to research, values that all apply to the ethics and aesthetics of the architecture of the age, and adds that architecture, art and design in Zagreb in the 1950s and 1960s were all built on similar values.
“Although modernist architecture and Prostoria’s products are more than half a century apart, they complement each other, speak a similar language, form a natural bond…,” says Mrduljaš.
Photos: Marko Mihaljević, Jure Živković
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