Ivan Štraus is a Bosnian architect of Slovenian origin. In 1947 he started to study architecture in Zagreb. He graduated in 1958 at the Technical University of Sarajevo. He began with his first successful participation in the architectural competition already as a student of architecture in 1952. Since then, he won about thirty leading prizes at the architectural public competitions in Yugoslavia and three international architectural competition first prizes: for the General Post Office, Ministry of PTT and Imperial Board of Telecommunications (1964) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (with Z. Kovacevic), for the National Opera House (1973) in Sofia, Bulgaria (with H. Muhasilovic), for The Great Mosque (1987) in Oran, Algeria (with H. Muhasilovic).

Work

His realizations are numerous, some of buildings are constructed after awarded competition ideas. Particularly significant buildings are General Post Office, Ministry of PTT and Imperial Board of Telecommunications in Addis Ababa (1969), UNIS Towers (1986), BH Electric Power Building (1978) and Holiday Inn Hotel (1983) in Sarajevo, Museum of Aviation (1989) in Belgrade. Some of his works were destroyed during the war like Olympic Press Centre in Bjelasnica built in 1983. Other works are Hotel Osmine in Slano near Dubrovnik (1972), Army Home in Dreventa (1977), Hotel Onogost in Niksic (1982), Catholic Church in Zovik near Brcko (1996), Chapel in St. Ante's Monastery in Sarajevo (1996), redesign of the Facade of Ministry Building of Bosnia and Herzegovina with T. Neidhardt (2006), Catholic Church Dobrinja in Sarajevo (2010).

In 1984 was elected for member of the Academy of Sciences and Arts of Bosnia and Herzegovina. On 2012 he became a foreign member of Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts.

His architectural work was presented on solo exhibitions in Sarajevo, Belgrade, Ljubljana, Skopje and Zagreb. In 1986/87 was organized a retrospection of his work through 25 years work in Sarajevo, Skopje, Belgrade, Ljubljana and Novi Sad. He was a frequent participant in the collective architectural exhibitions: "Yugoslav Architecture 1977-1984" in New York, "11 Prominent Architects of Yugoslavia" in Belgrade and "Architects-Academics of Bosnia and Herzegovina" in Sarajevo, Zagreb, Budapest and Maribor.

Published works

He also issued a series of scientific books and articles on architecture. In 1977 he published a chronicle "New Architecture of Bosnia and Herzegovina" and he was one of the author of the book "The Architecture of the Twentieth Century" in the edition of "Art in Yugoslavia" in 1987. In the same year he published "15 Years of Bosnian and Herzegovinian Architecture". In 1991 he published a chronicle "The Architecture of Yugoslavia 1945-1990". He published his diary "The Architect and the Barbarians" in French and Bosnian (1995). A chronicle "Architecture of Bosnia and Herzegovina 1945-1995" was published in 1998. ANUBiH published his monograph entitled 'Ivan Straus, architect/'52-'02" in 2002. His latest book published in Sarajevo in 2010 is entitled "99 Architects of Sarajevo Circle 1930-1990".