Biography

Vuko Bombardelli was a Croatian architect who is one of the most renowned and honored designers from the Dalmatian region who created some of the most notable and earliest modernist styled structures in his hometown of Split. His work is remembered for its emphasis on functionalism and constructivism. He founded the design firm 'Arhitekt' in Split in 1953, during which point he created several commercial and civic projects around the city of Split, such as the Gusar Rowing Club, the Gaje Promenade and Dalma Department Store. In the late 1950s, Bombardelli worked on the planning stages of a much anticipated Hajduk stadium project in Split, but the entire project was subsequently shelved by the city (yet, the project was later ressurrected in the late 1970s as Stadion Poljud). Most notably, between 1959 and 1962 Bombadelli worked to create the Pomgrad Tower, which was the first skycrapper in the city of Split and is cited as being the starting point of the 'modernist architecture' movement in Split. This tower was also unique in how it was the first housing complex in Split to explore the topic of 'modern living', where the concept of 'functional' and 'streamlined' housing units is explored as a solution to help tackle Split's overcrowding issue of the 1950s and 60s (but could be done so at 1/3 the price of the typical apartment of the time).

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Meanwhile, in the 1950s and 60s, Bombardelli received several commissions to design memorial works across the Dalmatian region to honor Partisan efforts during the National Liberation War (WWII). In the early 1950s, the monument projects that Bombardelli worked on were of a more traditional style, such as the "Monument to Fallen Port and Coastal Workers" in Split that he worked on with sculptor Željko Radmilović. However, through the 1960s Bombardelli became more adventurous with his design approaches. As a result, additional memorial works he created in Split, as well as at the close by towns of Sinj and Košute, were among some of the first in Yugoslavia to "radically subvert the traditional monumental morphology" of memorial sculpture, as one source relates. After the dismantling of Yugoslavia during the 1990s, some of these works experienced varying levels of neglect and destruction, for which he expressed great frustration and dismay. Bombardelli passed away after a long illness in Split during October of 1996.