2024Modern Architecture And Design (C) - Set

The beginnings of modernity in Zagreb's architecture are linked to the planned program of metropolitan development at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. The central role in the transformation of the city at the ­turn­­ of the 19th and 20th centuries belongs to the atelier Hönigsberg and Deutsch, the first trained architects in Zagreb and the first to exhibit their works alongside visual artists. Thanks­­­­ to the young ­­­­architects, the ­company ­­­­promoted a new ­­aesthetic ­­­worldview that continues to provide striking accents to the urban image of Zagreb today. The most representative example is Kallina House, built in 1903 – 1904 according to the design by Vjekoslav Bastl (Přibram, 1872 – Zagreb, 1947). After returning to Zagreb from his studies with the founder of the Vienna Secession, Otto Wagner, Bastl designed a series of exceptionally successful corner solutions, transforming the typology of commercial-residential rental buildings into a field of experimentation. Typical Secessionist expression of the intertwining of function and artistic understanding of architecture, the house built for the owner of what was then Croatia's largest ceramics factory, Josip Kallina, is also a powerful visual message in the urban environment. Bastl applied a similar method of designing facades as advertising surfaces on the house for pharmacist Eugen Feller, featuring a bottle of Elsa fluid at a height of two stories (at the corner of Jurišićeva Street and Ban J. Jelačić Square, 1905 – 1906), as well as on the facade of the house with allegorical figures representing the protectors of the medical profession for Doctor Eugen Rado (Ban J. Jelačić Square 5, 1904 – 1905). Like the famous Vienna Majolikahaus by Otto Wagner, the facade of Kallina House is clad in highly glazed ceramic tiles and is characterized by its striking colorfulness. In the rich ornamentation, friezes of tiles featuring motifs of bats, water lilies and red roses with stylized stems dominate. The central visual accent is the rounded corner with lavishly decorated spiderweb railings made of wrought iron and floors of reinforced glass. The highly aesthetic design places Kallina House among the top achievements of contemporary architecture in the Central European region.