PROTECTION OF INDUSTRIAL HERITAGE AS EXEMPLIFIED BY THE SEVCIK BROTHERS MACHINE FACTORY AND FOUNDRY

The paper gives an account of the Sevcik Brothers machine factory and foundry, as an example of industrial architecture in Zagreb in the interwar period, which has thus far not been researched and valorized. It is examined in the context of Zagreb industrial heritage and the wider context of the protection of European industrial heritage, respectively. The processes of industrialization in the last three centuries have set the rhythm of historical development. In the course of that time, technology has been a driving force of industrialization, becoming a carrier of extraordinary social, political, economic and spatial changes. The construction of the Sevcik Brothers machine factory and foundry got underway in 1922 and was in the following years, up until 1946, enlarged and expanded. The most important sections of the factory originated between 1928 and 1936, designed by architect Srecko Florschutz. Until it was brought down in the January of 2014, the factory had preserved its original building structure and appearance, while only minor sections have been removed or redesigned. In the last four decades, the factory was not in operation but was rented out to various users who failed to use and maintain it in an appropriate manner. Since the 1970s, Europe has experienced processes of deindustrialization and reurbanization, which led to the relocation of factories from their original environment to more appropriate locations that meet contemporary urban requirements. As a result, many factories were robbed of their function and now stand abandoned and left to decay. Although in the last three decades some attention was given to the systematic protection and valorization of industrial heritage, which led to the renovation and adaptive reuse of a smaller portion of industrial heritage, much of it is still in poor condition and awaiting reuse. Such was the case of the Sevcik Brothers factory, until it was demolished in the January of 2014.