Bernardo Bernardi: The Design Work of an Architect

01/06/2016

On Thursday, 2nd of June a book titled Bernardo Bernardi The Design Work of an Architect 1951. – 1985 by Iva Ceraj will be presented in the Library of the Croatian Academy Sciences and Arts, Strossmayer Square 14, Zagreb. The exhibition of the same title will open on Tuesday, 7th of June in the Croatian Museum of Architecture HAZU, Ivan Goran Kovačić Street 37, Zagreb.

In the present moment, that marks the rise of a new interest for the design legacy of modernism in the European context, the results of revalorization of the design work of the architect Bernardo Bernardi (1921 – 1985), the spiritus movens of the design profession in Croatia, indicate to the remarkable contribution of the author. An architect by profession, a designer by vocation, a charismatic promotor of design and the ultimate advocate of culture, Bernardi had in his creative expression achieved a unique encounter of two modernities: the implementation of the Nordic creative values and the legacy of Zagreb School of Architecture. The values of the formal Nordic vocabulary – transparency and simplicity, accompanied by a noble idea of democracy – were enthusiastically implemented in the Croatian design, as a pledge that continues to be a motivation even today. As a member of EXAT ’51, Bernardi considered the daily living spaces ideal for the synthesis of all arts contributing to the development of the dwelling culture by promoting better surroundings. Bernardi enriched the highest creative achievements by establishing relations with the Nordic milieu, in the communal endeavor to make the world a better and more humane for every human being. His visionary thinking drawing from the legacy of historical avant-gardes today opens new horizons in the interdisciplinary context of anthropology of design and cultural studies, and the revalorization of Bernardi’s work – as the first classic of Croatian design – is a contribution to the perception of our own legacy of design in the framework of European modernism.