(b Zagreb, 14 Aug 1894; d Novo Mesto, 12 Sept 1964). Croatian architect and teacher. He gained his Diploma of Architecture at the Technische Hochschule in Dresden. In 1921 he joined the group around Le Corbusier and L’Esprit Nouveau in Paris and then studied (1922–4) at the Staatliche Kunstakademie, Berlin, in the studio of Hans Poelzig. Ibler’s District Labour Insurance Building (1923), Zagreb, was the first project to reflect the spirit of the Modern Movement in Yugoslavia. Between 1925 and 1935 he established the ‘Zagreb School’ with fellow architects Drago Galic (b 1907), Mladen Kauzlaric, Stjepan Planic and others. In 1929 he founded Zemlja (The Land), a group of progressive artists. He was also a member of CIAM. In the 1920s and 1930s Ibler worked on numerous architectural competitions, but with little success due to ideological resistance to his progressive ideas. He also executed villas on the Island of Korcula, several industrial buildings, and the District Labour Insurance Building (1932), Skopje, which was important in introducing Le Corbusier’s principles, including ribbon windows, to Yugoslavia. In 1926 Ibler became a professor at the Zagreb Academy of Fine Arts, where he taught architecture until 1941. He then joined the University of Geneva as a lecturer in architecture. After 1950, again in Zagreb, he led a Master Studio in architecture and returned to teaching at the Academy of Fine Arts. After World War II he encouraged the humanization of architecture by means of more decorative, sculptural and harmonious compositions, for example in his designs for the new opera house (1948; unexecuted) in Belgrade; the Yugoslav Embassy (1959; unexecuted), Moscow; Tito’s residence (1961–4), Zagreb; and several residential blocks in Zagreb, in Marticeva, Smiciklasova and Vlaska Streets.

• Ibler, Drago
  • Croatia, §II: Architecture
  • groups and movements
    • Earth group
    • Planic, Stjepan
  • pupils
    • Kauzlaric, Mladen
  • works
    • Macedonia (ii), §I: Architecture