Langugae SWITCH
On Thursday, 19 February 2026, at 5:30 PM, a lecture and discussion on the construction of New Zagreb will take place at URANIA (Trg E. Kvaternika 3/3). The panel will be moderated by Valentina Gulin Zrnić, member of the project What Kind of Cities Do We Want? Contemporary Transformations of Urban Visions, Practices and Ethics
FROM THE EVENT ANNOUNCEMENT
Dubravka Vranić
“The Brodarski Institute: A Pioneer of New Zagreb”
How can the work of architects be political? This lecture reveals how Krleža’s circle, including architects from the interwar Group Zemlja, pushed forward the construction of the Brodarski Institute (and thereby New Zagreb) by using urban informality – the absence of formal urban planning documents. In Zagreb, for centuries the capital of a nation without a state, the Croatian elite learned to operate within “grey zones” to stimulate urban development as an instrument of nation- and state-building. In postwar ethnocratic Yugoslavia, Zagreb once again found itself in a grey zone due to the lack of a formal urban plan. Krleža’s circle recognised this as an opportunity to initiate intensive construction that would economically strengthen the city and increase Croatia’s power within Yugoslavia. They devised an informal plan for the expansion of Zagreb south of the Sava River, onto previously undeveloped land. This plan was implemented in three phases, corresponding to historical and political changes, suggesting that New Zagreb was also a political project. The lecture is based on a chapter of Dubravka Vranić’s doctoral research, Architecture, Power and Politics in New Zagreb, conducted at the Faculty of Architecture in Ljubljana under the supervision of Prof. Tadej Glažar and Prof. Tahl Kaminer (Cardiff University).
Panelists:
Dubravka Vranić, PhD, architect (FORMA studio d.o.o.) and researcher with twenty-five years of experience in architectural practice. Through award-winning and realised urban and architectural projects, she has developed a practical understanding of urban planning that shapes and guides her research work.
Academician Andrija Mutnjaković, an architect and graduate of Ibler’s School of Architecture.
Academician Prof. Branko Kincl, architect, collaborator of Josip Uhlik and Zdenko Kolacio at the Urban Planning Institute of the City of Zagreb from 1964 to 1970.
Prof. Krešimir Ivaniš, architect at Jugomont (a company specialised in industrial construction), expert in prefabricated building in New Zagreb.
Ivona Jerković, urban planner and architect (Grgurević & partneri d.o.o.), with twenty years of experience in producing strategic and implementation planning documents, as well as urban-architectural projects and award-winning competition proposals.
The discussion will be moderated by Valentina Gulin Zrnić, PhD, urban anthropologist (Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Research), author of Kvartovska spika: značenja grada i urbani lokalizmi u Novom Zagrebu (2009) and head of the project What Kind of Cities Do We Want? Contemporary Transformations of Urban Visions, Practices and Ethics (EU NextGenerationEU), as well as the founder of “Futurus” platform, dedicated to researching and co-creating our shared urban futures.
