Croatian Craftsmen’s Association – Matica hrvatskih obrtnika

The competition for the conceptual design of the Croatian Craftsmen's Association - Matica hrvatskih obrtnika was announced in 1937. The final project was realised by Zvonimir Požgaj in collaboration with Aleksandar Freudenreich, a member of the Construction Committee of the Association. The complex consists of five “buildings” – a street-facing building and two courtyard buildings, interconnected by so-called inter-buildings, each three stories high. The representative seven-story street-facing building and the second three-story courtyard building are parallel to Ilica Street, oriented along the east–west axis. The entire ground floor of the building, with an entrance from Ilica, is designed as a commercial passage with a gallery. Within the ground-floor passage, access leads to a restaurant, and via a staircase to the gallery and conference hall on the upper floor. From the passage, staircases also provide access to the street-facing and first courtyard buildings, which house offices and residential spaces. Although it is a striking example of maximum land exploitation—both in terms of area and building- the complex represents an exceptionally valuable achievement by the academic architects Požgaj and Freudenreich, demonstrating design excellence in overcoming an extremely demanding task. The building also serves as a showcase of the capabilities and skills of the finest Croatian craftsmen, symbolising their pride, while also generating income to invest in the development and promotion of the craft and to aid those in need. In its architecture and representative fittings, a latent duality is present: on one hand, progressive artistic and architectural tendencies; on the other, “classicising” traditional elements. This ambivalence arises from the investor’s requirements as well as new trends in architecture and art in the second half of the 20th century.