Architecture and Housing Culture in Zagreb in the Period 1880–1940
About the project
The subject of research is the residential architecture of the Lower Town – its typological, morphological, stylistic and structural features as well as art and crafts decorations pointing to the residential culture realized in the period starting from the first great Zagreb earthquake in 1880 to 1940, a period during which Zagreb was transformed into a cultural, economic, commercial and monetary centre of Croatia. This urban whole together with the expansion of urban housing – a representative stretch of squares and the so-called Green Horseshoe intended for recreation and social interaction – is also the main urban substance of Zagreb forming it into a Central European metropolis and creating its identity. Both elements resulted from a high culture of urban planning and housing, strictly defined rules (building order, regulatory bases), joint action of urban planners and builders, that is, architects and master builders who co-created and respected those rules, and investors who belonged to a civil class eager for public promotion.
The reconstruction of the Lower City after the earthquake 2020 has faced us with the problems resulting from insufficient research and valorization of architectural heritage, poor knowledge about individual architectural commissions and projects. Original forms features of the buildings, such as facades and interiors, were exposed to further devastation. The preliminary analysis of the available archival material and documentation has indicated that these problems most persist in the urban fabric of city blocks made up of individual examples of residential architecture. The current state of its architectural heritage does not represent the culture of the epoch during which it was created, but rather a very specific local way of dealing with it, which inevitably leads to a disappearance of various cultural layers and “historicity”, which are the symbols of the national development analogous to the European efforts of the same epoch.
Follow the activities of the research team here.
Results of the project are available through CroRIS.
Principal Investigator
Irena Kraševac, PhD, Institute of Art History
Research team
Marina Bagarić, PhD, Museum of Arts and Crafts, Zagreb
Tamara Bjažić Klarin, PhD, Institute of Art History
Vanja Brdar Mustapić, PhD, Museum of Arts and Crafts, Zagreb
Boris Dundović, M. Arch., Conservation Architect, Institute of Art History
Ivana Haničar Buljan, dipl. ing. arh., Institute of Art History
Katarina Horvat, PhD, State Archives in Zagreb
Katarina Horvat-Levaj, PhD, Institute of Art History
Ivana Mance Cipek, PhD, Institute of Art History
Branko Ostajmer, Croatian Institute of History
Irena Šimić, mag. hist. art., Institute of Art History
Jana Vukić, PhD, Department of Sociology, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Zagreb
Project acronym: ARHZAG
Project duration: 18 December 2023 – 17 December 2027
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The competitive scientific research project is implemented with the support of the Croatian Science Foundation, and is managed under the code IP-2022-10-9503.
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