Plecnik, Joze

Plecnik, Joze

(1872–1957)Slovene architect who practiced in Vienna, Belgrade, Prague, and Ljubljana. He worked in Viennese architect Otto Wagner’s office until 1900, and was affiliated with the Viennese Secession. From 1900 through 1910 Plecnik practiced architecture in Vienna, completing projects such as the Langer House (1900) and the Zacherlhaus (1905). These early projects featured organic motifs typical of the Secession. Plecnik’s design for the Church of the Holy Spirit in Vienna (1913) used poured-in-place concrete as both structure and exterior surface. Most radical is the church’s crypt, with its slender concrete columns and angular, cubist capitals and bases. His teachings influenced a generation of architects who would help define the avant-garde Czech Cubist movement of the 1920s. In 1920 he began work on Prague Castle, a medieval structure that dominates the historic capital. Renewed interest in Plecnik’s work developed in the 1980s and 1990s, as postmodernism led to a reconsideration of classical forms and motifs in architecture.