Plecnik's 1905 Zacherl Palace in Vienna caps a modern planar stone facade with a parade of stylized classical telamons, the male equivalent of a caryatid.
I traveled to Prague and Vienna in 2008 to study the work of Jose Plecnik (1872-1957), a trip made possible by a Centerbrook Travel Grant. This was my second opportunity to study far-flung architecture through this unique program: My first, in 1996, allowed me to experience the work of C. R. Mackintosh in Scotland. Most architects and many “civilians” know his work, although not many architects know of Plecnik’s.
Photographs from my 2008 trip come up on my computer screensaver so I get a regular reminder of this wonderful experience, of the lessons I learned from travel, and from Plecnik’s work in particular.
Architecture endures. The buildings I saw were all built in the early decades of the last century and are nestled among other, even older structures. What we architects do may be around well after we are gone. That is both humbling and ennobling. It’s rewarding to do work that generations may enjoy and venerate (or hate and berate!) In a modern world that is awash in ephemera, Tweets and blogs, the permanence of architecture is a throwback.
Prague’s Medieval Tyn cathedral viewed from a side street.
Great architecture is not limited to great cities. Plecnik’s work in Prague and Vienna, beginning at the turn of the century, preceded his later buildings in Ljubljana, Slovenia. A vacation trip to Slovenia in 2006 enabled me to admire a number of his projects that I had previously only seen in the few published books on Plecnik, many in black and white, or through colleagues’ slides. My study grant was a trip back in time to understand the formative years of his career.
The congregation of the Church of the Sacred Heart in Prague wanted a stone building but could not afford it in 1932. Plecnik devised a rich alternative by using a field of klinker bricks with stone inserts evoking the ermine robes of royalty.
Plecnik left his native Slovenia in 1894, traveled to Vienna, then the hub of the universe if you were a citizen of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and studied with Otto Wagner, a Starchitect of the era. He may eventually have succeeded him at his academic post, but bias against his provincial background, if some accounts are to be believed, undercut his candidacy. So instead of laboring on in the hothouse of Vienna, Plecnik accepted an offer from President Masaryk to help the emerging republic of Czechoslovakia by restoring Prague Castle as a cultural symbol. From there he returned to his native Ljubljana and spent the majority of his career in Slovenia producing a string of memorable projects throughout the country despite daunting obstacles that included the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, a World War, the emergence of the Communist state, the formation of a pan-Slavic state, and finally, the Cold War.
Plecnik's 1942 Market for Llubljana plays a vital role in his urban plan for the city.
The National and University Library finished in 1941uses stone salvaged from the site, including some that date from Roman times.
Great architects like Plecnik are not always recognized in their time. Not surprisingly, he had little access to the western architectural world, and, in turn, few Americans had the opportunity to visit his. Plecnik was dead for almost 30 years before his work was exhibited in Paris at the Pompidou Center for a wider public. Some argue that his sensibilities and willingness to incorporate classical elements into his thoroughly modern architecture encouraged the emerging Post-modernists of the period. The legacy of a great architect is not only in the built work but in the re-interpretation of the conceptual approach one took to achieve it. It’s analogous to the impact DNA has, first on the individual, and later on their offspring.
The sequence of space in the interior of the library is an ascent from the darkness of the street entry to the light of knowledge in the reading room.
So take heart, all you under-appreciated laboring designers. It’s just possible that your efforts may outlive you and reflect well on your Sisyphean strivings. I recommend a visit to the perceived cultural backwater of your choice to discover the next notable architect for the benefit of generations of architects to come. She may be in your own backyard.
For more background on Plecnik’s fascinating life and work try these links:
