Architects Mladen Kauzlarić and Stjepan Gomboš in Dubrovnik (1930-1940)

Mladen Kauzlarić i Stjepan Gomboš, zaposleni u ateljeu Huge Erlicha, kao prvi samostalni zajednički rad potpisuju natječajni projekt za Židovsku bolnicu u Zagrebu 1930. godine. Osnovavši uskoro vlastiti projektantski atelje, arhitekti će surađivati čitavo četvrto desetljeće da bi ih ratne okolnosti razdvojile i usmjerile vlastitim putovima. Od samog početka suradnje, usporedo sa zagrebačkim djelovanjem, Kauzlarić i Gomboš gotovo su neprekidno projektantskim radom vezani i za Dubrovnik. U radu je kronološki prikazan niz dubrovačkih ostvarenja i neizvedenih projekata dvojice arhitekata.While they were employed in Hugo Erlich’s offi ce in Zagreb, architects Mladen Kauzlarić (Gospić, 1896 - Zagreb, 1971) and Stjepan Gomboš (Sombor, 1895 - Zagreb, 1975) worked together for the fi rst time when they did a tender project for the Jewish hospital in Zagreb in the year 1930. Soon after, they founded a studio and worked together for the entire fourth decade of the 20th century, until WW2 drew them apart and made them go their separate ways. The work they did in Zagreb, which is highly esteemed in the context of Croatian modern architecture, went parallel with the work they almost continually did in Dubrovnik. The article offers a chronological overview of both realized and unrealized projects of the two architects in Dubrovnik with the attempt of assessing Croatian architecture between the two wars. Thanks to the enterprising activities of art historian and art critic Kosta Strajnić (1887 - 1977), who criticized the architectural practice employed in Dubrovnik of the time and promoted modern architecture, the local government decided to open a tender for the construction of the City Cafe. Around ten projects got applied, none of them got the fi rst prize, and the no less praiseworthy second prize went to Nikola Dobrović as well as to Kauzlarić and Gomboš, whose project was immediately chosen as the one to be realized. The City Cafe, which was up until then situated in a part of the ground-fl oor of the town hall, was now meant to encompass the ground-fl oor of the adjacent building where the military bakery used to be. The Austro-Hungarian government built it at the beginning of the nineteenth century on the ruins of the Great Arsenal of the Republic of Ragusa. Whilst the cafe was being reconstructed and enlarged (1931 - 1934), the architects also decorated the Ton-Cinema (1931-1932). The project, which was executed on the fi rst fl oor of what used to be the military bakery, was fi nanced by private investors. Even though the reconstruction of the City Cafe in Dubrovnik has been regularly mentioned as one of the key moments in the affi rmation of modern architecture on the Croatian coast, the project itself has never been fully elaborated. The importance of its realization does not lie so much in the reconstruction of the layered arches of the former Arsenal, whose clearly visible contours were later repeated by the architects, but rather in the inventively implemented reorganization of a disorganized agglomerate. The architects managed to create a unity of exceptional spatial value and enable a high level of functionality for the existing content. Spatial and airy, decorated with contemporary furnishings, the interior of the cafe functioned as a key platform for the acceptance of a new concept of architecture in the Dubrovnik area. This paved the way for other architects with more modern inclinations such as Nikola Dobrović and Drago Galić, and promoted Mladen Kauzlarić and Stjepan Gomboš into local authorities. The City continued consulting the architects in more complex architectural and micro-urbanism issues, and private investors, often from the highest class, continued asking for their services. However, there are many reasons for a relatively small number of projects they managed to realize. When it comes to projects for public purposes, their non-realization is often connected to complex social circumstances, determined by the relation between private and public ownership and the emotional attitude of the public towards the old city centre, which more than once managed to affect the intentions of the local government and entrepreneurs. When it comes to the construction of private buildings, the key factor for the non-realization of projects is the discrepancy between the wishes of investors and a consistency of the authors who did not want to give up on their architectural principles and artistic style. Rich clients in Dubrovnik, which is after all a provincial town, sought for their status to be confi rmed by the existing elite and therefore wanted that their houses be built in an eloquent dialogue with historical continuity, a demand that minimalism prone and somewhat restrained style of the architects could not meet. This is why many exceptional projects by Kauzlarić and Gomboš, like the 1935 project for the Hedvig Zimdin Regenhart villa in St. Jacob, as well as that for Karlo Banco (1936/7) and Mihajlo Gluščević (1937) on the island of Lapad, remain unrealized; yet, they would probably gain canonical status within the realized projects of Croatian modern architecture. Among the projects that were realized, we wish to accentuate the Rusko villa on the island of Koločep (1939). If we compare it to the earlier projects for the Zimdin Regenhart, Banac and Gluščević villas, we can clearly see that the architects now lingered more on the local tradition, especially the architecture of Dubrovnik’s Renaissance summer houses. However, this does not diminish the exceptionality of the project. When it comes to the unrealized projects for public spaces, as well as to unrealized urban operations, – the City Market in the City Port (1931), Lazareti Hotel (1936), coastal path in the City Port (1937) and the regulation of the Pile plateau (1937 and 1940), the complexity of project tasks, as conditioned by the signifi cance of the historical environment, makes it diffi cult to estimate the value of offered solutions one-sidedly, but they can certainly be praised for their consistency in the appliance of modernist principles and a high degree of creativity in the approach to the problem. The features of Kauzlarić’s and Gomboš’s architecture for apartment buildings in Zagreb can also be noticed in Dubrovnik. Forming clear, well proportioned volumes, attentively located in a conditioned environment, is in accordance with local peculiarities, as seen in the usage of stone as the building material and the appliance of traditional construction elements faithfully transported in the language of modern architecture. The functionality of the freely organized interior isn’t just a dogmatic condition for the two architects, but it is the potential that can give birth to the creativity that will result in a new artistic and life quality. The opening up and intertwining of individual spaces was devised with the aim of achieving a free-fl owing, dynamic whole with an abundance of carefully planned vistas. Such a concept of space is inseparable from the interaction of the exterior and the interior, as achieved by wide windows, and a refi ned creation of semi-closed spaces like porches, balconies and verandas, always envisaged as areas of transition between the visual and the physical perception of space, and not as architectural elements that would contribute to their work being a showcase. As a whole, and this is something that hasn’t been recognized as such thus far, the architectural activities of Mladen Kauzlarić and Stjepan Gomboš in Dubrovnik take up a signifi cant amount of their work and at the same time surpass the local contexts in terms of their quality, and therefore represent an important element for knowing Croatian architecture in between the two wars

Arhitektura Dubrovnika između dva svjetska rata

Radnjom se nastoji steći uvid u arhitektonsku produkciju i urbani razvoj Dubrovnika i njegove uže okolice (od Cavtata na istoku, do Trstenog na zapadu, uključivši i Elafitske otoke) tijekom razdoblja između dva svjetska rata (1918.-1941.). U obradu su uključene i godine Drugog svjetskog rata (1941.-1944.), koje se neposredno vezuju za razmatrano razdoblje, a u političkom, društvenom i kulturnom smislu predstavljaju njegov konačni završetak.Aims and objectives of this doctoral dissertation are an overview of the architectural production and urban development of the city of Dubrovnik in the interwar period (1918- 1941). The rural and suburban territories of the city - from Cavtat to Trsteno together with the Elafiti archypelago - are also included. The period of the Second World War (1941-1944) is also included in this research because it represents an entity linked to the previous period in cultural, social and political sense and is its conclusion

Neven Šegvić i Dubrovnik

Prikaz knjige Andreja Uchytila Dubrovačke pouke arhitekta Nevena Šegvića, Zagreb, Udruženje hrvatskih arhitekata, Arhitektonski fakultet Sveučilišta u Zagrebu, 2007

Arhitektura Dubrovnika između dva svjetska rata: doktorska disertacija

Disertacija je obranjena 10. studenog 2015. na Filozofskom fakultetu Sveučilišta u Zagrebu

Architects Mladen Kauzlarić and Stjepan Gomboš in Dubrovnik (1930-1940)

Mladen Kauzlarić i Stjepan Gomboš, zaposleni u ateljeu Huge Erlicha, kao prvi samostalni zajednički rad potpisuju natječajni projekt za Židovsku bolnicu u Zagrebu 1930. godine. Osnovavši uskoro vlastiti projektantski atelje, arhitekti će surađivati čitavo četvrto desetljeće da bi ih ratne okolnosti razdvojile i usmjerile vlastitim putovima. Od samog početka suradnje, usporedo sa zagrebačkim djelovanjem, Kauzlarić i Gomboš gotovo su neprekidno projektantskim radom vezani i za Dubrovnik. U radu je kronološki prikazan niz dubrovačkih ostvarenja i neizvedenih projekata dvojice arhitekata.While they were employed in Hugo Erlich’s offi ce in Zagreb, architects Mladen Kauzlarić (Gospić, 1896 - Zagreb, 1971) and Stjepan Gomboš (Sombor, 1895 - Zagreb, 1975) worked together for the fi rst time when they did a tender project for the Jewish hospital in Zagreb in the year 1930. Soon after, they founded a studio and worked together for the entire fourth decade of the 20th century, until WW2 drew them apart and made them go their separate ways. The work they did in Zagreb, which is highly esteemed in the context of Croatian modern architecture, went parallel with the work they almost continually did in Dubrovnik. The article offers a chronological overview of both realized and unrealized projects of the two architects in Dubrovnik with the attempt of assessing Croatian architecture between the two wars. Thanks to the enterprising activities of art historian and art critic Kosta Strajnić (1887 - 1977), who criticized the architectural practice employed in Dubrovnik of the time and promoted modern architecture, the local government decided to open a tender for the construction of the City Cafe. Around ten projects got applied, none of them got the fi rst prize, and the no less praiseworthy second prize went to Nikola Dobrović as well as to Kauzlarić and Gomboš, whose project was immediately chosen as the one to be realized. The City Cafe, which was up until then situated in a part of the ground-fl oor of the town hall, was now meant to encompass the ground-fl oor of the adjacent building where the military bakery used to be. The Austro-Hungarian government built it at the beginning of the nineteenth century on the ruins of the Great Arsenal of the Republic of Ragusa. Whilst the cafe was being reconstructed and enlarged (1931 - 1934), the architects also decorated the Ton-Cinema (1931-1932). The project, which was executed on the fi rst fl oor of what used to be the military bakery, was fi nanced by private investors. Even though the reconstruction of the City Cafe in Dubrovnik has been regularly mentioned as one of the key moments in the affi rmation of modern architecture on the Croatian coast, the project itself has never been fully elaborated. The importance of its realization does not lie so much in the reconstruction of the layered arches of the former Arsenal, whose clearly visible contours were later repeated by the architects, but rather in the inventively implemented reorganization of a disorganized agglomerate. The architects managed to create a unity of exceptional spatial value and enable a high level of functionality for the existing content. Spatial and airy, decorated with contemporary furnishings, the interior of the cafe functioned as a key platform for the acceptance of a new concept of architecture in the Dubrovnik area. This paved the way for other architects with more modern inclinations such as Nikola Dobrović and Drago Galić, and promoted Mladen Kauzlarić and Stjepan Gomboš into local authorities. The City continued consulting the architects in more complex architectural and micro-urbanism issues, and private investors, often from the highest class, continued asking for their services. However, there are many reasons for a relatively small number of projects they managed to realize. When it comes to projects for public purposes, their non-realization is often connected to complex social circumstances, determined by the relation between private and public ownership and the emotional attitude of the public towards the old city centre, which more than once managed to affect the intentions of the local government and entrepreneurs. When it comes to the construction of private buildings, the key factor for the non-realization of projects is the discrepancy between the wishes of investors and a consistency of the authors who did not want to give up on their architectural principles and artistic style. Rich clients in Dubrovnik, which is after all a provincial town, sought for their status to be confi rmed by the existing elite and therefore wanted that their houses be built in an eloquent dialogue with historical continuity, a demand that minimalism prone and somewhat restrained style of the architects could not meet. This is why many exceptional projects by Kauzlarić and Gomboš, like the 1935 project for the Hedvig Zimdin Regenhart villa in St. Jacob, as well as that for Karlo Banco (1936/7) and Mihajlo Gluščević (1937) on the island of Lapad, remain unrealized; yet, they would probably gain canonical status within the realized projects of Croatian modern architecture. Among the projects that were realized, we wish to accentuate the Rusko villa on the island of Koločep (1939). If we compare it to the earlier projects for the Zimdin Regenhart, Banac and Gluščević villas, we can clearly see that the architects now lingered more on the local tradition, especially the architecture of Dubrovnik’s Renaissance summer houses. However, this does not diminish the exceptionality of the project. When it comes to the unrealized projects for public spaces, as well as to unrealized urban operations, – the City Market in the City Port (1931), Lazareti Hotel (1936), coastal path in the City Port (1937) and the regulation of the Pile plateau (1937 and 1940), the complexity of project tasks, as conditioned by the signifi cance of the historical environment, makes it diffi cult to estimate the value of offered solutions one-sidedly, but they can certainly be praised for their consistency in the appliance of modernist principles and a high degree of creativity in the approach to the problem. The features of Kauzlarić’s and Gomboš’s architecture for apartment buildings in Zagreb can also be noticed in Dubrovnik. Forming clear, well proportioned volumes, attentively located in a conditioned environment, is in accordance with local peculiarities, as seen in the usage of stone as the building material and the appliance of traditional construction elements faithfully transported in the language of modern architecture. The functionality of the freely organized interior isn’t just a dogmatic condition for the two architects, but it is the potential that can give birth to the creativity that will result in a new artistic and life quality. The opening up and intertwining of individual spaces was devised with the aim of achieving a free-fl owing, dynamic whole with an abundance of carefully planned vistas. Such a concept of space is inseparable from the interaction of the exterior and the interior, as achieved by wide windows, and a refi ned creation of semi-closed spaces like porches, balconies and verandas, always envisaged as areas of transition between the visual and the physical perception of space, and not as architectural elements that would contribute to their work being a showcase. As a whole, and this is something that hasn’t been recognized as such thus far, the architectural activities of Mladen Kauzlarić and Stjepan Gomboš in Dubrovnik take up a signifi cant amount of their work and at the same time surpass the local contexts in terms of their quality, and therefore represent an important element for knowing Croatian architecture in between the two wars

Praefatio for the Architecture of Villas in Župa dubrovačka: Villa Bettera near Mlini

Ljetnikovac Bettera (»Beterino«, »Bettera-Katić«) kraj Mlina u Župi dubrovačkoj plijeni pozornost svojim smještajem i prostornom organizacijom, očuvanim prirodnim okružjem i bogatom kulturnom poviješću, nažalost jednako kao i današnjim izrazito zapuštenim stanjem. Stoga je namjera rada prije svega ukazati na njegovo zaboravljeno značenje te postaviti pitanja na koja će eventualno biti moguće točnije odgovoriti tek nakon sustavnih konzervatorskih sondiranja i arheoloških istraživanja. Iznose se osnovni podaci o nastanku ladanjskoga sklopa, njegovome razvoju i propadanju kao i opis postojećega stanja te kulturna povijest ljetnikovca koji lokalna predaja veže uz značajne ličnosti dubrovačke povijesti. Također, pojedinačni spomenik nastoji se razmotriti u prostornom kontekstu Župskoga zaljeva, područja čija je ladanjska izgradnja, vjerojatno zbog skromnijih oblikovnih dosega, slabije istražena i dokumentirana, a time i dodatno podložna nestajanju i zaboravu

Lazaretto Complex in Ploče from the Fall of the Republic of Dubrovnik to Present (1808-2013)

Članak donosi prikaz novije povijesti Lazareta na Pločama u Dubrovniku, jedinstvenog spomenika graditeljstva i zdravstvene kulture, izgrađenog u razdoblju od 1627. do 1647. godine. Nakon što u drugoj polovici 19. stoljeća gube izvornu funkciju karantene, Lazareti proživljavaju dugotrajno razdoblje zapuštenosti i degradacije. Tijekom prve polovice 20. stoljeća izrađeni su brojni projekti za preobrazbu sklopa u hotel, da bi nakon postupne revalorizacije i iscrpljujućih rasprava o budućoj namjeni Lazareti bili obnovljeni krajem 1960-ih godina. No obnovom ne završavaju nedoumice o namjeni sklopa, već gotovo bez prekida traju do danas.This paper presents the recent history of the Lazaretto complex in Dubrovnik’s area called Ploče. It is a unique architectural monument and a quarantine facility built in the period between 1627 and 1647. After the Lazaretto quarantine hospital had lost its primary function in the second half of the 19th century, the complex fell into decay for a long time. Numerous projects for its conversion into a hotel were conceived in the first half of the 20th century. After a gradual evaluation process and exhausting debates on its future program, the Lazaretto complex was renovated in the late 1960s. However, its renovation did not resolve a dilemma about its use