ZGRADONAČELNIK Robert Loher

Croatia's cities are grappling with a dual challenge: an aging building stock that has seen little investment in a century, and a spatial plan that has been neglected for decades, without a clear direction. The result is infrastructure buckling under pressure, and buildings that are often unsafe. What does it mean to be an architect in such an environment, when the very foundations of urban development are compromised? Robert Jonatan Loher, the expert secretary of the Croatian Chamber of Architects, offers a candid assessment of the profession's struggle to be heard amidst ad-hoc planning decisions and a public often focused on superficial aesthetics. He explains how a century of deferred maintenance has created problems too vast for individual residents to solve, and how the absence of a guiding strategy has led to wild, unsustainable construction. This conversation uncovers the core tension between what a building *should* be — functional, safe, integrated — and what it often becomes: a consequence of short-term thinking. You will leave with a clearer understanding of the systemic forces shaping our built environment, and the quiet fight to reclaim architectural integrity.