ARCHITECT MARKO VIDAKOVIĆ AND THE ARCHITECTURE IN ZAGREB DURING THE INTERWAR PERIOD

Abstract

The influence of Czech to Croatian architecture of the 20th century is rather important – partly because of the activities undertaken by Czech architects in Croatia (for example in the erection of the complex of Bata factory in Borovo), but even more for many Croatian and Yugoslav architects were educated either at the German or the Czech Polytechnic University in Prague. Among the most important of them is Marko Vidaković (born in Golubinci, 18. 7. 1890. – died in Zagreb, 5. 1. 1976). After spending one year of studying at the Higher School for Technic in Vienna (1909–1910), he studied at the Česká vysoká škola technická in Prague with interruptions betwwen 1910 and 1919. Vidaković played a crucial role for the appearance of modernism in Croatian architecture by organizing the exhibition Czechoslovakian contemporary architecture in u Zagrebu (1928) with the support of Zdenĕk Wirth from the Czechoslovakian Ministry for schooling and national education. Shortly after this exhibition he designed and built on of the first examples of the international style in Zagreb, the villa of Ljudevit Pfeffermann (Jurjevska 27a, 1928–1929). In this, as in his later projects (such as the unrealized pavilion for the Zagreb fair from 1931), the influence of Czech architects is evident. Although after the Pfeffermann villa Vidaković would not have a change to realize more significant buildings, the projects he worked on (tram stops of 1930; the art hall of 1930; Clinic for Otorhinolaryngology of 1940, all in Zagreb) show that he was a talented architect who completely accepted the lexis of modern architecture. He holds a prominent place in propagation of the international style in Croatia and Yugoslavia through many articles published in periodicals Arhitektura from Ljubljana, as well as in Zagreb and Belgrade daily newspapers. During the Second Wolrd War he actively participated in saving Serbian children in the pro-fascist Independent State of Croatia.