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DISCOVERING JOZE PLECNIK AND THE REBELLIOUS SPIRIT OF POSTMODERN DESIGN IN SLOVENIA
I went back to Slovenia’s capital city, Ljubljana, to explore in more depth the work of Joze Plecnik, an architect who influenced Michael Graves and Frank Gehry, among others. Originally trained as an assistant carpenter, Plecnik studied architecture and worked with Otto Wagner, one of the most revered Viennese architects of the 19th century.
After working in Vienna and then Prague, Joze Plecnik came back to his hometown of Ljubljana to rebuild a city that destroyed by the earthquake of 1895. His work includes universities, a market, bridges, churches, interior decor for private houses, furniture design and product design. I discovered that his work was game-changing, provocative and full of symbols meant to convey a spirit of artistic independence for this small nation that ultimately survived dominance by other European powers.
Scholars are only recently finding in Plecnik’s work the stamp of a deeply religious Catholic man yet with a strong will to attack dogmas and preconceived ideas. You can find in his work a certain level of eroticism, and a controversial challenge to the church from an aesthetic perspective. St Michael’s Church, for instance, is the only transversal floor plan ever designed for a Catholic church. Plecnik explained that this was intended to equalize the distance of rich and poor congregants in relationship to the altar, since it is well known that the richest members of the community have always had the best seats in front of the church, often with their names attached to the pews.
Some of Plecnik’s masterpieces in Ljubljana include the University Library and the renowned Triple Bridge, commissioned to alleviate traffic problems. Instead of destroying an existing historic bridge at that location, the architect cleverly added two pedestrian bridges on each side of the original. But one of the highlights of my trip was a visit to one of the few homes Plecnik decorated, where you could see his furniture, lighting and object design together. In that environment you could see how he tested his imagination and showcased his interest in design in a much broader sense.
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