Universum Plečnik: Between Workshop and Myth
Tomaž Štoka, Miloš Kosec, Bogo Zupančič, Jože Plečnik
The Architecture and Design Museum of Ljubljana, 2023
€39,00
In the summer of 1921, after decades of work abroad, Jože Plečnik (1872-1957) returned to his native Ljubljana. At that time, the already famous architect with an international career, as a professor at the newly established university, together with his students and supporters, began to build his own architectural, artistic and ethical world, which over the decades grew into a very special architectural phenomenon. Plečnik’s school was organized as a workshop, which was managed by a master with uncompromising authority and dedication to his profession. Since the establishment of the school, the architect’s students have oscillated between being loyal to the master and persistently archaic authorities. Until his death in the summer of 1957, Plečnik created one of the best independent architectural works of the 20th century, which cannot be placed in any of the established architectural directions, and he also educated several generations of architects, who in the second half of the 20th century created recognizable modernism. Ljubljana schools. The exhibition at the Museum of Architecture and Design reflects Plečnik’s rich legacy and hitherto less exposed topics through the discussion of selected architect’s approaches and thematics of the complex relationship between teacher and students. The Slovenian capital, which Plečnik built gradually and with limited resources, and in which he interpreted the remains of the past and combined them into new wholes, today we see as the possibility of a different, more sustainable and humane place. Plečnik’s heritage of community and public spaces is revealed through archival plans, models, sketches and photographs as a complex and comprehensive vision of a connected world.
ISBN: 9789616669985