Boris Podrecca (born 30 January 1940 in Belgrade) is a Slovene- Italian

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

and urban designer living in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

. Podrecca is considered by some critics a pioneer of postmodernism. With some of his early works, such as the neuro-physiological institute at Stahremberg Palace (1982), he took a new, more tolerant attitude towards historical architectural forms.

Biography

He was born in Belgrade,

Serbia Serbia (, ; Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin and the Balkans. It shares land borders with Hung ...

(then in

Yugoslavia Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label= Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavij ...

), to a Slovene father and a

Serb The Serbs ( sr-Cyr, Срби, Srbi, ) are the most numerous South Slavs, South Slavic ethnic group native to the Balkans in Southeastern Europe, who share a common Serbian Cultural heritage, ancestry, Culture of Serbia, culture, History of ...

mother. His father was a Slovene immigrant from the Italian border region known as

Julian March Venezia Giulia, traditionally called Julian March (Serbo-Croatian, Slovene: ''Julijska krajina'') or Julian Venetia ( it, Venezia Giulia; vec, Venesia Julia; fur, Vignesie Julie; german: Julisch Venetien) is an area of southeastern Europe wh ...

(Venezia Giulia), who had fled to the

Kingdom of Yugoslavia The Kingdom of Yugoslavia ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Kraljevina Jugoslavija, Краљевина Југославија; sl, Kraljevina Jugoslavija) was a state in Southeast and Central Europe that existed from 1918 until 1941. From 1918 ...

in order to escape persecution from the Italian Fascist regime. His original Slovene surname, Podreka, had been

Italianized Italian (''italiano'' or ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European language family that evolved from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire. Together with Sardinian, Italian is the least divergent language from Latin. Spoken by about 85 m ...

to Podrecca in the early 1930s. After

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, the family moved to

Trieste Trieste ( , ; sl, Trst ; german: Triest ) is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is the capital city, and largest city, of the autonomous region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, one of two autonomous regions which are not subdivided into pr ...

, Italy, where Boris attended a

Slovene language Slovene ( or ), or alternatively Slovenian (; or ), is a South Slavic language, a sub-branch that is part of the Balto-Slavic branch of the Indo-European language family. It is spoken by about 2.5 million speakers worldwide (excluding spea ...

elementary school. In the 1960s, he moved to

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

to study architecture at the

University of Technology An institute of technology (also referred to as: technological university, technical university, university of technology, technological educational institute, technical college, polytechnic university or just polytechnic) is an institution of t ...

where he graduated in 1968 with Professor Roland Rainer. From 1979 to 1981 he worked as an assistant at

Technical University of Munich The Technical University of Munich (TUM or TU Munich; german: Technische Universität München) is a public research university in Munich, Germany. It specializes in engineering, technology, medicine, and applied and natural sciences. Establis ...

and later, as a guest lecturer at

Lausanne Lausanne ( , , , ) ; it, Losanna; rm, Losanna. is the capital and largest city of the Swiss French speaking canton of Vaud. It is a hilly city situated on the shores of Lake Geneva, about halfway between the Jura Mountains and the Alps, and fac ...

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. ...

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. The isla ...

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, Harvard-Cambridge,

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the capital city, state capital and List of municipalities in Massachusetts, most populous city of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financ ...

and Vienna. From 1988 until 2006 he was full professor at the Technical University of Stuttgart and Director of the Institute of Architectural Design and Theory of Space. He is a foreign member of the

Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts The Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts ( la, Academia Scientiarum et Artium Serbica, sr-Cyr, Српска академија наука и уметности, САНУ, Srpska akademija nauka i umetnosti, SANU) is a national academy and the ...

. Boris Podrecca became famous with the exhibition of the work of the architect

Carlo Scarpa Carlo Scarpa (2 June 1906 – 28 November 1978) was an Italian architect, influenced by the materials, landscape and the history of Venetian culture, and by Japan. Scarpa translated his interests in history, regionalism, invention, and the te ...

in the church of Chiesa della Carita at the 1984

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...

and later the Villes d'Eaux exhibition in Paris. He was also responsible for the exhibition of the work of

Jože Plečnik Jože Plečnik () (23 January 1872 – 7 January 1957) was a Slovene architect who had a major impact on the modern architecture of Vienna, Prague and of Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia, most notably by designing the iconic Triple Bridge an ...

in the

Pompidou Centre The Centre Pompidou (), more fully the Centre national d'art et de culture Georges-Pompidou ( en, National Georges Pompidou Centre of Art and Culture), also known as the Pompidou Centre in English, is a complex building in the Beaubourg area of ...

in Paris (1986). As a leading exhibition designer he set up the Biedermeier (Vienna, 1987), Bismarck, Prussia, Germany and Europe (Berlin, 1990) and One Hundred Years of Austria exhibitions (1996).

Main works

* Tartini Square, Piran, Slovenia, 1987–89 *Piazza XXIV Maggio,

Cormons Cormons or Cormòns ( sl, Krmin, german: Kremaun) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Italian region Friuli-Venezia Giulia, located about northwest of Trieste and about west of Gorizia, on the border with Slovenia. Cormons borders the f ...

, Italy, 1989–1990 *Dirmhirngasse School, Vienna, 1991–1994 *Museum of Modern Art,

Ca' Pesaro The Ca' Pesaro is a Baroque marble palace turned art museum, facing the Grand Canal of Venice, Italy. Today it is one of the 11 museums run by the Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia system. The building was originally designed by Baldassarre Lon ...

, Venice, 1992–2002 *Greif-Areal mixed-use development,

Bolzano Bolzano ( or ; german: Bozen, (formerly ); bar, Bozn; lld, Balsan or ) is the capital city of the province of South Tyrol in northern Italy. With a population of 108,245, Bolzano is also by far the largest city in South Tyrol and the third ...

, Italy, 1992–2000 *Judeca Nova Apartments,

Giudecca Giudecca (; vec, Zueca) is an island in the Venetian Lagoon, in northern Italy. It is part of the '' sestiere'' of Dorsoduro and is a locality of the ''comune'' of Venice. Geography Giudecca lies immediately south of the central islands of Ve ...

, Venice, 1995–2003 *"In der Wiesen" Social Housing, Vienna, 1996–2000 * Millennium Tower, Handelskai, Vienna, 1997–1999 *Railway Square,

Krems an der Donau Krems an der Donau () is a town of 23,992 inhabitants in Austria, in the federal state of Lower Austria. It is the fifth-largest city of Lower Austria and is approximately west of Vienna. Krems is a city with its own statute (or ''Statutarstad ...

, Austria, 1997 *Hotel and Conference Centre, Mons,

Ljubljana Ljubljana (also known by other historical names) is the capital and largest city of Slovenia. It is the country's cultural, educational, economic, political and administrative center. During antiquity, a Roman city called Emona stood in the a ...

, 2000–2004 *City Square,

Motta di Livenza Motta di Livenza (or di Ligenda/ Ligondo·la/ Livanda·la, later Ligondza, then Livenza) is a town in the province of Treviso, Veneto, Italy. Twin towns Motta di Livenza is twinned with: * L'Isle-Jourdain, Gers, France * Cres, Croatia * Para ...

, Italy, 2001–2002 *

Praterstern Praterstern is a major square in the Leopoldstadt district of Vienna, Austria . The square features the column to Admiral Wilhelm von Tegetthoff. Located and named after it are the Wien Praterstern railway station Wien Praterstern (Germ ...

Urban Square, Vienna, 2002–2008 *VBio Center 1, Vienna, 2003–2005 *Skidome und Multi-Functional Center,

Garching bei München Garching bei München (''Garching near Munich'') or Garching is a town in Bavaria, Germany, near Munich. It is the home of several research institutes and university departments on its campus. It became a city on 14 September 1990. Location The ...

, Germany, 2005 *Punta Skala Resort,

Zadar Zadar ( , ; historically known as Zara (from Venetian and Italian: ); see also other names), is the oldest continuously inhabited Croatian city. It is situated on the Adriatic Sea, at the northwestern part of Ravni Kotari region. Zadar serv ...

, Croatia, 2005- *Station San Pasquale,

Napoli Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

, Italy, 2006- *Šumi Center,

, Slovenia, 2006 - *Science and Technology Museum, Belgrade, Serbia, 2007- *Civic-Cultural Centre in

Ajdovščina Ajdovščina (; it, Aidussina,trilingual name "Haidenschaft, Aidussina, Ajdovščina" inGemeindelexikon, der im Reichsrate Vertretenen Königreiche und Länder. Bearbeit auf Grund der Ergebnisse der Volkszählung vom 31. Dezember 1900. Herausgege ...

, Slovenia, 2010 - *

Grain Bridge The Grain Bridge ( sl, Žitni most) is a footbridge over the Ljubljanica River in Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia. It is located between Tanner Street, Ljubljana, Tanner Street () and Gestrin Street (), and links the Petkovšek Embankment () on ...

, Ljubljana, 2010 *PP1 project (skyscraper and "city cottages"),

Padua Padua ( ; it, Padova ; vec, Pàdova) is a city and ''comune'' in Veneto, northern Italy. Padua is on the river Bacchiglione, west of Venice. It is the capital of the province of Padua. It is also the economic and communications hub of t ...

, 2010 - *Hotel Falkensteiner, Belgrade, Serbia, 2012

Awards

*1986:

Ordre des Arts et des Lettres The ''Ordre des Arts et des Lettres'' (Order of Arts and Letters) is an order Order, ORDER or Orders may refer to: * Categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated, and understood * Heterarchy, a system ...

, Paris *1990: Kulturpreis für Architektur, Vienna *1992: Jože Plečnik Award, Ljubljana *1996: Honorary Member of the

Federation of German Architects A federation (also known as a federal state) is a political entity characterized by a union of partially self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a central federal government (federalism). In a federation, the self-governin ...

*2000: Honorary degree of the

University of Maribor The University of Maribor ( sl, Univerza v Mariboru) is Slovenia's second-largest university, established in 1975 in Maribor, Slovenia. It currently has 17 faculties. History The university's roots reach back to 1859, when a theological semin ...

, Slovenia *2003: Liberty Award by the President of the Republic of Slovenia

References

* Boeckl, Matthias: ''Boris Podrecca. Public Spaces'', Chronicle Books, 2003, * AA.VV., ''Boris Podrecca. Architettura e Poetica della diversità'', Lezioni di Architettura e Design, vol 44,

Corriere della Sera The ''Corriere della Sera'' (; en, "Evening Courier") is an Italian daily newspaper published in Milan with an average daily circulation of 410,242 copies in December 2015. First published on 5 March 1876, ''Corriere della Sera'' is one of I ...

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard language, Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the List of cities in Italy, second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

, 2016 {{DEFAULTSORT:Podrecca, Boris 1940 births Living people Austrian architects Slovenian architects Members of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts TU Wien alumni Austrian people of Slovenian descent Italian Slovenes Architects from Trieste Artists from Vienna Urban designers Austrian people of Serbian descent Chevaliers of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres