Visual Inspiration

tHe Art oF tHe meAL

Feature photos by Katija Živković

tHe Art oF tHe meAL

In addition to photography, Katija Živković, who also deals with food, cultivates the garden in Konavle, that piece of beautiful land behind Dubrovnik, turning each of her photographs into a visual inspiration.

You can find Katija in the south of Croatia, or join her community at www.pieceofkate.net.

Architect‘s Corner

LookiNG ForwArD, LookiNG BAck

Old Zagreb, Martićeva Street

LookiNG ForwArD, LookiNG BAck

it’s quite natural for a first-time visitor to Zagreb to wonder “what was it like here under communism?” there are surprisingly few visible traces of that time in the city, perhaps because Croatia, as part of Yugoslavia, experienced a rather gentler mode of communism than its neighbours.

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ArCHITECTurE to mention the words “socialism” and “architecture” in the same sentence is to conjure up visions of dreary avenues of endless concrete blocks, for the non-architects among us at least. however, socialism spawned quite a few buildings which are much admired by the arty cognoscenti and by mere mortals alike.

For instance, you may have seen Warsaw’s Palace of Culture and science – though controversial, it’s certainly astonishing. You’re less likely to have seen Zvartnots Airport in Yerevan, Armenia – but it’s stunning in a 1960’s Barbarella kind of way. socialist architecture in Zagreb took a different route to the sometimes ostentatious “socialist realist” style. often it was inspired by the utopian ideals of the “father of modern architecture”, Charles-Édouard Jeanneret, better known as le Corbusier. Appalled by the poverty he saw in Paris in the 1920s, le Corbusier designed homes which he saw as “machines for living” which should make life pleasant for their owners and transcend class divides.

Monseuir le C was a well-travelled chap. his network included a fair few Yugoslav architects who brought to life his vision back home. one example in Zagreb is the block that straddles numbers 33 and 35 on Vukovarska avenija. it was designed in the mid -1950s by Drago Galić, who was inspired by M. le C’s unité d’habitation modernist residence in Marseille. As with the French building, the residents in Vukovarska live in what architects and art historians claim to be one of the most human-friendly buildings around. the flats are laid out over two floors (and studios for singles in the attic). there’s a great view over the city, a caretaker and a communal laundry. on Vukovarska there a lot of buildings from the new wave of architecture in the 1950s: the City hall, the building where a branch one of the banks is now housed; the People’s open university and the apartment block on the corner of Držićeva, which might not seem like the best place to live

with the traffic roaring past but whose flats boast a better design than many built today.

Galić was the protégé of another well-known Croatian architect, Drago ibler, a contemporary of le Corbusier who is responsible for another iconic building known as “the Wooden skyscraper”. You’ll see it on iblerov trg: a low-rise section with business premises with an eight-floor residential block on one side. its innovative design makes it one of Zagreb’s most famous buildings of the era, and like all the buildings we mention, it’s still a desirable residence. Residents can enjoy a terrace with a wooden pergola covering the whole of the top of the block. nearby, in laginjina ulica, is another building famous for its humane design and harmonious incorporation into the city, with a small park next door. take a look at the colourful panels and sliding sunscreens on the south side of the building.

For a little retro “commie”-chic seek out the building of the erstwhile Central Committee of the union of Communists of Croatia – fondly known as the “kockica”, or “cube”. Designed by ivo Vitić, you’ll find it on the banks of the sava at Prisavlje 14. today it houses a brace of government ministries.

And for a little post-modern irony, look no further than the building known as “super Andrija” after the hero of a hit song from the 1960s. As the writer of a forum post puts it, “it’s a socialist mammoth… ugly as the plague”. But all would agree, the building, though big and ugly, is very well built. urban legend has it that if an atom bomb fell on Zagreb, super Andrija would be the last thing left standing. Behind it is a large park called “Park mladenaca” or “the Bride and Groom’s Park”, because couples would plant trees there when they got married.