Studio Banana TV interviews Croatian architect Hrvoje Njric, one of the most prominent European architects. He is based in Zagreb and has won numerous competitions and awards in Croatia and Slovenia. His work has been published and exhibited widely. Interview realised with the sponsorship of the European University of Madrid.
Born in 1960 in Zagreb, Hrvoje Njric was educated at the University of Zagreb. From 1990 till 2001 he was a partner in the provocative young European practice njiric+njiric arhitekti. Since 2001 he has been the principal of njiric+ arhitekti. Hrvoje Njiric gained acknowledgement in the 90’s with projects developed by the former njiric+njiric partnership. The schemes for Europan (3 first prizes) and Slovenian projects for Baumaxx and McDonald’s were widely published and awarded. The new practice evolved from and continued the work of the former office. njiric+ regards architecture to be much more than a physical definition of its boundaries or a formal assemblage of building materials. Its non-physical aspects are about phenomena of contemporary society and mass culture, about architects as masters – not of the game, but at least of the logistics.
Social public buildings, such as kindergartens, schools, libraries and faculties are the second major concern of the office. In a numerous competition entries they are investigating these typologies and shifting their limitations toward moderate inventions. Besides the kindergarten MB (2007), chances are that three of them will be built – the city library in Rijeka (GKR 2005-), the law faculty in Split (Palazzo Bolognese 2008-) and the university library in Zadar (2009-). Visionary projects are the essential part of our practice. Based on facts and defined by circumstances, various concepts of a non-utopian character are developed in order to question the constraints of the current production in architecture. The major ones – „Yokohama Burning“ and „Twisted Schinkel“ originate from the 90’s, but the office is motivated to continue taking risks in the 10’s, as already done with the za(breg) 2012 project.
Hrvoje Njiric has won numerous competitions and awards in Croatia and Slovenia (where he has completed a number of projects), and his work has been published and exhibited widely. He has taught and lectured throughout Europe in places such as Ljubljana, the ETSAB Barcelona, the AA School of Architecture London or the ETH Zürich, and was a professor at TUGraz in Austria from 1999 to 2005 and recently at the GAFS Split (2007-) and ETSAM Madrid (2008-).
Special thanks to Master in collective housing from UPM, Nerea Calvillo and Sofie Liesenborghs.
Interview realised with the sponsorship of the European University of Madrid.
Interview and translation by Studio Banana TV.
