Stjepan Planić

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Personal information
Stjepan Planić
Stjepan Planić
Name	Stjepan Planić
Nationality	Croatian
Birth date	December 27. 1900.
Birth place	Zagreb
Date of death	December 26. 1980.
Work
Significant buildings	Napredak zadruga, Villa Fuhrmann, The Mountaineer's Home Tomislav
Awards and prizes	Vladimir Nazor life achievement award, 1968 Viktor Kovačić life achievement award, 1972.

Stjepan Planić (December 27, 1900 - December 26, 1980) was a Croatian architect. HIs style can be described as a synthesis of functionalist and organic architecture. From 1920 to 1922 he worked for the architect Rudolf Lubinsky and, after 1927, in his own practice in Zagreb. He also studied architecture (1927–31) at the Academy of Fine Arts, Zagreb, in the studio of Drago Ibler and in 1931 joined the progressive group founded by Ibler, Zemlja (Earth Group). Planić was a protagonist of the social ideals of modern architecture as well as the aesthetic, and he had a special interest in social or low-cost housing. Ironically, however, he became a sought-after specialist in the design of luxury villas in Zagreb, and was thus marked as a hypocrite. In answer to this charges, he designed office and residential buildings in the centre of Zagreb, which are characterized by simplicity and functional planning; examples include the residential buildings in Draškovićeva Street (1932), Marinkovićeva Street, Bogovićeva Street (1937) and Martićeva Street (1938). He also wrote three Letters on housing, in which he explains his working concepts in letters to a housewife. In 1942 he converted the circular Arts Pavilion, Trg Hrvatskih Velikana, Zagreb, designed by the sculptor Ivan Meštrović, into a mosque by adding three free-standing minarets around the body of the central cylinder and designing a new interior richly decorated with arabesques. The mosque, a monumental and somewhat bizarre addition to the Central European appearance of its surroundings, was demolished in 1949 for political reasons, and Planić was anathemized because of it. After the war, he worked in the Ministry of Construction (1945 - 1950), Principle Directory of Construction (1950 - 1952) Secretariat for Construction and Urbanism (1959 - 1962). On July 30th 1970. Planić retired but continued with his architectural work. In 1968 he received the Life Achievement Award "Vladimir Nazor" and in 1972.the Life Achievement Award "Viktor Kovačić"