Prostoria invests in activating cultural heritage

Revisiting Richter was developed in collaboration with design studios Neisako, Numen/ForUse and Grupa, together with Prostoria’s in-house R&D team. Through a process of analysis and reconstruction, Richter’s concepts were translated into a contemporary production context and adapted to today’s standards of technology and comfort.

“The decades following the mid-20th century were a kind of ‘golden age’ for Croatian architecture, art and design. It was a time of strong cultural optimism - something we need again today - when creativity, industry and society were closely connected, and ideas developed in Zagreb were globally relevant. From that period, there are a few authors who are especially valued within the Croatian architectural and design community. Vjenceslav Richter is one of them.

With the project Revisiting Richter, we wanted to bring these ideas into real life -not as a reproduction of the past, but as its continuation - and to share them, for the first time, with both local and international audiences.

In that sense, this project is not only about furniture. It is about reconnecting with a cultural moment in which design had meaning, responsibility and a clear direction - and about making those ideas live again today,” said Tomislav Knezović, owner of Prostoria.

From architecture to furniture

Richter did not design furniture as autonomous objects, but as an integral part of architecture - as an extension of the spaces and systems he conceived. For this reason, many of his proposals were never adapted for serial production.

Individual pieces in the collection originate from specific architectural and exhibition contexts - from the transformation of the Art Pavilion in Zagreb and the EXAT-51 exhibition in 1952, to hotel interiors in Umag, as well as the Yugoslav Pavilion at Expo 58 in Brussels and the Italia ’61 exhibition in Turin.

Through Revisiting Richter, Prostoria translates these architectural ideas into functional furniture for the first time. The result is a collection that feels both familiar and contemporary.

From Zagreb to the world

Following its Milan premiere, the exhibition will be presented to Croatian audiences at Days of Oris on May 9–10 at the Vatroslav Lisinski Concert Hall in Zagreb, while the collection will become available on the market in the second half of 2026.

In June, the project continues in Chicago, where Prostoria will participate in NeoCon, the leading North American furniture event, further opening Richter’s work to an international audience.