PUBLIC LECTURE

On 9 March 2026, starting at 7:30 p.m., Mirna Tkalčić Simetić delivered the lecture “Zagreb After the Earthquake: Living the Unannounced Disaster” at the Bogdan Ogrizović Library and Reading Room in Zagreb. Valentina Gulin Zrnić gave the introductory remarks and moderated the discussion following the lecture. The lecture was organised within the project “What Kind of Cities Do We Want? Contemporary Transformations of Urban Visions, Practices and Ethics” (NextGenerationEU) and the FUTURUS platform.

On the same day, as part of the event announcement on Radio Sljeme, an interview was broadcast between Mirna Tkalčić Simetić and journalist Nikolina Devčić on the topic of the lecture.

(Cover photo by Ida Križaj Leko)

Announcement

Following the earthquake in March 2020, Zagreb entered a prolonged state of waiting – first for the adoption of the legislative framework for reconstruction, and then for its material implementation. The earthquake with its epicentre near Petrinja further destabilised already damaged parts of the city, particularly the historic urban core and the foothills of Mount Medvednica. In Zagreb, a formal declaration of disaster was never issued, and the post-earthquake reconstruction process has been marked by slowness, fragmentation, excessive bureaucratisation, and a low level of citizen participation in decision-making. The lecture examines the social and institutional conditions that shaped the scale and consequences of the earthquake, as well as the mechanisms of the systemic production of uncertainty that contribute to the perpetuation of an “invisible disaster” in the post-earthquake centre of Zagreb.