Berthold Romanovich Lubetkin (December 14 1901 —
October 23 1990) was a Russian emigré architect who pioneered modernist design in
Britain in the 1930s.
Early Years
Born in Tbilisi, Georgia, Lubetkin studied in
Moscow and Leningrad where he witnessed the
Russian Revolution of 1917 and absorbed elements of Constructivism, both as a participant in street festivals and as a student at
VKhUTEMAS.
Lubetkin practiced in Paris in the 1920s in partnership with Jean Ginsburg, with whom he
designed an apartment building on the Avenue de Versailles. In Paris he associated with the leading figures of the European Avant
Garde including Le Corbusier. He continued to participate in the debates of
Constructivism, designing a trade pavilion for the USSR in Bordeaux and
participating in the Palace of the Soviets competition, for which his entry was
shortlisted.
Tecton in the 1930s
Emigrating to London in 1931, Lubetkin set up the architectural practice
Tecton. The first projects of Tecton incuded landmark buildings for London Zoo, the gorilla house and a penguin pool (clearly showing the influence of Naum Gabo). Tecton were also commissioned by London Zoo to design buildings for their reserve park at
Whipsnade and to design a completely new zoo in Dudley. Dudley Zoo consisted of twelve animal enclosures and was a unique example of early Modernism in the UK,
though several of the Tecton Buildings were demolished or remodelled in the 1960s.
Tecton's housing projects included private houses in Sydenham and
Plumstead, south London, and most famously the Highpoint
apartments in Highgate. Highpoint One was singled out for particular praise by Le Corbusier, while Highpoint Two exhibited a more surreal style, with its patterned facade and
caryatids at the entrance. Lubetkin and Tecton were involved in the MARS Group, until they set up the more radical Architects and Technicians Organisation in 1936.
The Labour Party council in the London borough of Finsbury were major patrons of Tecton, commissioning the Finsbury Health Centre, which was completed in 1938.
Lubetkin defended the Modernism of this public health project by declaring 'nothing is too good for ordinary people.' Tecton also
prepared a housing plan for Finsbury which would be postponed by the onset of war in 1939. The Health Centre symbolised the
embryonic Welfare State and NHS, appearing on a propaganda
poster headed 'Your Britain- Fight for it Now'. Tecton's work would also be the major influence on the Festival of Britain.
For most of these projects Lubetkin and Tecton worked closely with Ove Arup as structural
engineer.
Post War
Following the Second World War Tecton worked on expanded versions of their pre-war Finsbury projects. They became the Spa
Green Estate, the first stone of which was laid by Aneurin Bevan in 1946, and the Priory
Green Estate. Led by Denys Lasdun, Tecton also designed the Hallfield Estate in Paddington. These all showed a more decorative,
patterned style which contrasted greatly with the embryonic Brutalism. Lubetkin
also designed a memorial for Lenin, who had lived in Finsbury, and the Bevin Court
housing block, with its daring Constructivist staircase.
In 1947 Lubetkin was commissioned to be master planner and chief architect for the
Peterlee new town. Concentrating on Peterlee led Lubetkin to break up Tecton. The masterplan
for Peterlee included a new civic centre for which Lubetkin proposed a number of high rise towers. However the extraction of coal
was to continue under the town for several years which would have caused subsidence and the developers and Coal Board would only
consider a dispersed low density development.
Frustrated, Lubetkin resigned from Peterlee in 1949 and retired to Gloucestershire
where he managed a farm. Lubetkin continued to submit proposals to design competitions but by the end of the 1950s his style had
fallen out of favour. Nonetheless in the late 50s and early 60s Lubetkin, along with former Tecton partners Douglas Bailey and
Francis Skinner designed several large council estates in Tower Hamlets:
the Cranbrook Estate, Dorset Estate and Sivill House, all of which continued the idiom of complicated abstract facades and
Constructivist staircases established in the 1940s.
Lubetkin eventually moved to Bristol where he lived with his wife in relative obscurity. In 1982 Lubetkin was awarded the
RIBA Gold Medal. He died in Bristol in 1990. His daughter Louise
Kehoe published an award-winning memoir of her life, which revealed previously unknown facts about her father, in
1995. Lubetkin was the subject of a Design Museum exhibition in 2005.
Tecton members
- Douglas Bailey
- Anthony Chitty
- Lindsay Drake
- Michael Dugdale
- Valentine Harding
- Denys Lasdun
- Godfrey Samuel
- Francis Skinner
Associated with Lubetkin
See also
Further reading
- John Allan - Lubetkin: Architecture and the Tradition of Progress (RIBA Publications, 1992) ISBN 0-947877-62-2
- John Allan and Morley von Sternberg - Berthold Lubetkin (Merrell Publishers, 2002) ISBN 1-85894-171-7
- Louise Kehoe - In This Dark House: A Memoir (Schocken Books, 1995) ISBN 0-8052-4122-1
- M. Reading and P. Coe - Lubetkin and Tecton: An Architectural Study (Triangle Architectural Publications, 1992) ISBN
1-871825-01-6
External links
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