Berthold Romanovich Lubetkin (14 December 1901 – 23 October 1990) was a Georgian-British
architect
An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...
who pioneered
modernist
Modernism is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...
design in Britain in the 1930s. His work includes the
Highpoint housing complex, the
Penguin Pool at
London Zoo,
Finsbury Health Centre and
Spa Green Estate.
Early years
Although certificates exist stating that his birth was in Warsaw in 1903, Lubetkin described these as false documents which he had used to conceal time spent in the
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army ( Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, afte ...
. It is believed he was born in
Tbilisi
Tbilisi ( ; ka, თბილისი ), in some languages still known by its pre-1936 name Tiflis ( ), is the capital and the largest city of Georgia, lying on the banks of the Kura River with a population of approximately 1.5 million p ...
(now the capital of
Georgia
Georgia most commonly refers to:
* Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia
* Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States
Georgia may also refer to:
Places
Historical states and entities
* Related to the ...
), into a Jewish family. His father, Roman (Reuben) Aronovich Lubetkin (1885, Saint Petersburg – 1942,
Auschwitz), was a civil engineer for the railroad.
Lubetkin studied in Moscow and
Leningrad
Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
where he witnessed the
Russian Revolution of 1917
The Russian Revolution was a period of political and social revolution that took place in the former Russian Empire which began during the First World War. This period saw Russia abolish its monarchy and adopt a socialist form of government ...
and absorbed elements of
Constructivism
Constructivism may refer to:
Art and architecture
* Constructivism (art), an early 20th-century artistic movement that extols art as a practice for social purposes
* Constructivist architecture, an architectural movement in Russia in the 1920s a ...
, both as a participant in street festivals and as a student at
VKhUTEMAS.
Lubetkin practised in Paris in the 1920s in partnership with Jean Ginsburg, with whom he designed an apartment building on #25 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
Constructivism may refer to:
Art and architecture
* Constructivism (art), an early 20th-century artistic movement that extols art as a practice for social purposes
* Constructivist architecture, an architectural movement in Russia in the 1920s a ...
, designing a trade pavilion for the USSR in Bordeaux and participating in the
Palace of the Soviets
The Palace of the Soviets (russian: Дворец Советов, ''Dvorets Sovetov'') was a project to construct a political convention center in Moscow on the site of the demolished Cathedral of Christ the Saviour. The main function of the pa ...
competition, for which his entry was shortlisted.
Tecton in the 1930s
![Lubetkin Highpoint II December 2005](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/af/Lubetkin_Highpoint_II_December_2005.jpg)
Emigrating to London in 1931 from the Soviet Union, Lubetkin settled in the artists' community associated with the British art critic
Herbert Read, located in
Hampstead. In London he set up the architectural practice
Tecton
The Tecton Group was a radical architectural group co-founded by Berthold Lubetkin, Francis Skinner, Denys Lasdun, Michael Dugdale, Anthony Chitty, Val Harding, Godfrey Samuel, and Lindsay Drake in 1932 and disbanded in 1939. The group was one ...
. The first projects of Tecton included landmark buildings for
London Zoo, the gorilla house and a
penguin pool (clearly showing the influence of
Naum Gabo
Naum Gabo, born Naum Neemia Pevsner (23 August 1977) (Hebrew: נחום נחמיה פבזנר), was an influential sculptor, theorist, and key figure in Russia's post-Revolution avant-garde and the subsequent development of twentieth-century scul ...
). Lubetkin and Tecton set up the Architects and Technicians Organisation in 1936.
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 is a large market town and administrative centre in the county of West Midlands, England, southeast of Wolverhampton and northwest of Birmingham. Historically an exclave of Worcestershire, the town is the administrative centre of the ...
.
Dudley Zoo
Dudley Zoological Gardens is a zoo located within the grounds of Dudley Castle in the town of Dudley, in the Black Country region of the West Midlands, England. The Zoo opened to the public on 18 May 1937. It contains 12 modernist animal enclosu ...
consisted of twelve animal enclosures and was a unique example of early Modernism in the UK. All of the original enclosures survive, apart from the penguin pool, which was demolished in 1979. According to the 20th Century Society: 'Encapsulated in the playful pavilions at Dudley is a call to remember the higher calling of all architecture, embracing not just material needs but also the desire to inspire and delight.'
Tecton's housing projects included private houses in
Sydenham Sydenham may refer to:
Places Australia
* Sydenham, New South Wales, a suburb of Sydney
** Sydenham railway station, Sydney
* Sydenham, Victoria, a suburb of Melbourne
** Sydenham railway line, the name of the Sunbury railway line, Melbourne ...
, one of the UK's few modernist terraces at
85-91 Genesta Road in
Plumstead
Plumstead is an area in southeast London, within the Royal Borough of Greenwich, England. It is located east of Woolwich.
History
Until 1965, Plumstead was in the historic counties of England, historic county of Kent and the detail of mu ...
, south London, and seven houses at Sunnywood Drive, Haywards Heath and most famously the
Highpoint apartments in
Highgate
Highgate ( ) is a suburban area of north London at the northeastern corner of Hampstead Heath, north-northwest of Charing Cross.
Highgate is one of the most expensive London suburbs in which to live. It has two active conservation organisati ...
. 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
A caryatid ( or or ; grc, Καρυᾶτις, pl. ) is a sculpted female figure serving as an architectural support taking the place of a column or a pillar supporting an entablature on her head. The Greek term ''karyatides'' literally means "ma ...
at the entrance.
![Lubetkin Finsbury Health Centre](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6d/Lubetkin_Finsbury_Health_Centre.jpg)
The
Labour Party council in the
Metropolitan Borough of Finsbury
The Metropolitan Borough of Finsbury was a Metropolitan borough within the County of London from 1900 to 1965, when it was amalgamated with the Metropolitan Borough of Islington to form the London Borough of Islington.
Formation and boundaries
...
were major patrons of Tecton, commissioning the
Finsbury Health Centre, which was completed in 1938. Lubetkin and Tecton's achievement in Finsbury was to unite the aesthetic and political ambitions of Modernism with the radical municipal socialism of the Borough. The health centre resolved the tension between three key modernist ideals.
First: a social function; universal access to healthcare free at the point of use for the borough's residents (a decade before the NHS).
Second, the political; no longer was social good to be achieved through charity or hope, instead it was provided by a democratically elected and accountable municipal authority, funded through local taxation.
And third, the element which made Tecton's work unique, the aesthetic. The building's tiled facade shone above the surrounding slums, its rational conception asserted the ideal of a socialist future as the rational endgame to progress; in Lubetkin's words the architecture "cried out for a new world".
Lubetkin's modernism – 'nothing is too good for ordinary people' – laid down a challenge to the class bound complacency of thirties Britain. But Tecton's plans to replace Finsbury's slums with modern flatted housing were stopped by the onset of war in 1939.
![Vertical lenin](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/33/Vertical_lenin.jpg)
Paradoxically the war would move Lubetkin's work from the radical fringe to the mainstream. As the fighting progressed, the British government became increasingly committed to the idea of building a fairer society when peacetime came. As this was articulated through propaganda, Modernist architecture became the visual expression for this radiant future.
Abram Games
Abram Games (29 July 191427 August 1996) was a British graphic designer. The style of his work – refined but vigorous compared to the work of contemporaries – has earned him a place in the pantheon of the best of 20th-century graphic desi ...
designed a series of posters comparing the promise of modernism, one featuring the Finsbury Health Centre, with the appalling realities of pre war Britain. The uncompromising title to each poster was: 'Your Britain- Fight for it Now'. A further sign of this political shift was the erection in 1941 of a statue in memorial to
Lenin
Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov. ( 1870 – 21 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin,. was a Russian revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He served as the first and founding head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 to 19 ...
. Designed by Lubetkin, the memorial marked the site of Lenin's lodgings at Holford Square, London in 1902/3. The Monument had been defaced many times by those opposed to Communist Russia and its ideals at the time. This resulted in the monument being placed under 24-hour police guard.
Post-war
![Lubetkin Sivill House front](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1a/Lubetkin_Sivill_House_front.jpg)
The post-war Labour victory was built on the promise of modernism as pioneered by Tecton. The Finsbury Health Centre became a model for the new National Health Service. To confirm the significance of Lubetkin's vision, the Minister of Health
Aneurin Bevan
Aneurin "Nye" Bevan PC (; 15 November 1897 – 6 July 1960) was a Welsh Labour Party politician, noted for tenure as Minister of Health in Clement Attlee's government in which he spearheaded the creation of the British National Health ...
laid the foundation stone to Tecton/Finsbury's
Spa Green Estate in winter 1946. Spa Green remained the flagship estate, adapting many features from the luxury
Highpoint flats for working families (including lifts, central heating, balconies, daylight from multiple directions, and a spectacular roof terrace); in 1998 it received a high Grade II* listing for its architectural significance and the 2008 restoration brought back the original colour scheme.
![Lubetkin Spa Green balcony facade winter](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b6/Lubetkin_Spa_Green_balcony_facade_winter.jpg)
Spa Green was the first of a series of housing projects for the practice including Finsbury's
Priory Green Estate and Tecton's work in Paddington (led by
Denys Lasdun
Sir Denys Louis Lasdun, CH, CBE, RA (8 September 1914, Kensington, London – 11 January 2001, Fulham, London) was an eminent English architect, the son of Nathan Lasdun (1879–1920) and Julie ('' née'' Abrahams; 1884–1963). Probably his ...
) at the
Hallfield Estate
The Hallfield Estate, owned by Westminster City Council, is one of several modernist housing projects in Bayswater, London designed in the immediate postwar period by the Tecton architecture practice, led by Berthold Lubetkin. Following the di ...
. These all showed a more decorative, patterned style which contrasted greatly with the
Brutalist
Brutalist architecture is an architectural style that emerged during the 1950s in the United Kingdom, among the reconstruction projects of the post-war era. Brutalist buildings are characterised by Minimalism (art), minimalist constructions th ...
style that was soon to emerge as the dominant form of welfare state architecture. Ironically, however, several features of Lubetkin's 1940s neo-Constructivist modernism have become staples of postmodern architecture, for example at Spa Green the floating roof canopy, the stairwells marked by repeated clusters of square 'windows', and the acute-angled canted meeting lodge.
![Lubetkin Spa Green bedroom facade and meeting lodge](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9e/Lubetkin_Spa_Green_bedroom_facade_and_meeting_lodge.jpg)
For most of these projects Lubetkin and Tecton worked closely with
Ove Arup
Sir Ove Nyquist Arup, CBE, MICE, MIStructE, FCIOB (16 April 1895 – 5 February 1988) was an English engineer who founded Arup Group Limited, a multinational corporation that offers engineering, design, planning, project management, and ...
as structural engineer. Arup's innovative concrete 'egg-crate' construction at Spa Green gave each flat clear views unobstructed by internal pillars, and his aerodynamic 'wind roof' provided a communal area for drying clothes and social gathering.
In 1947, Lubetkin was commissioned to be master planner and chief architect for the
Peterlee
Peterlee is a town in County Durham, England. It lies between Sunderland to the north, Hartlepool to the south, the Durham Coast to the east and Durham to the west. It gained town status in 1948 under the New Towns Act 1946. The act also create ...
new town, where he worked closely with
Monica Felton
Monica Felton (1906 – March 1970) was a British writer, town planner, feminist and social activist, a member of the Labour Party.
Early life
Monica Glory Page (later Felton) was born in 1906, the eldest of four siblings, Una Hilary (b. 1908 ...
. The following year Tecton was dissolved. Commenting on this, Lubetkin wrote to fellow Tecton member
Carl Ludwig Franck "that after the war Tecton was at best a ghost of its former self".
Lubetkin's masterplan for Peterlee included a new civic centre for which he proposed a number of high rise towers. However the extraction of coal was to continue under the town for several years which posed a risk of subsidence. As a result, the
National Coal Board
The National Coal Board (NCB) was the statutory corporation created to run the nationalised coal mining industry in the United Kingdom. Set up under the Coal Industry Nationalisation Act 1946, it took over the United Kingdom's collieries on "v ...
(NCB), itself an agency of the
Ministry of Fuel and Power
The Ministry of Power was a United Kingdom government ministry dealing with issues concerning energy.
The Ministry of Power (then named Ministry of Fuel and Power) was created on 11 June 1942 from functions separated from the Board of Trade. ...
would only consider a dispersed low density development. Despite investigating a number of options that would have allowed coal extraction to continue without preventing the proposed development, the NCB would not alter their policy. As Lubetkin was the employee of the
Ministry of Town and Country Planning this developed into an inter-ministerial battle, and despite attempts at dispute resolution at cabinet level the difference in approach between the ministries remained. Frustrated at the unresolved bureaucratic battles, Lubetkin resigned from the Peterlee project in spring 1950. The only physical sign of his involvement in the scheme exists in the adjoining opposed parabola forms of the road layout at
Thorntree Gill.
Lubetkin returned to
Finsbury
Finsbury is a district of Central London, forming the south-eastern part of the London Borough of Islington. It borders the City of London.
The Manor of Finsbury is first recorded as ''Vinisbir'' (1231) and means "manor of a man called Finn ...
to complete (in collaboration with
Francis Skinner
Sidney George Francis Guy Skinner (191211 October 1941) was a friend, collaborator, and lover of the Austrian philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein.
Biography
He was born in 1912 in Kensington, London, England, and educated at St Paul's School, L ...
and Douglas Bailey) his final project for the Borough,
Bevin Court. Initially named Lenin Court the housing scheme was to incorporate Lubetkin's Lenin Memorial. Post-war austerity had imposed far greater budgetary constraints than in the showpiece Spa Green Estate, forcing Lubetkin to strip the project of the basic amenities he had planned; there were to be no balconies, community centre or nursery school. To save costs, Lubetkin made significant use of prefabricated floor and wall components. Instead he focused his energies on the social space. Fusing his aesthetic and political concerns he created a stunning constructivist staircase – a social condenser that forms the heart of the building. Before the building was completed the Cold war had intensified and as a result the scheme was renamed Bevin Court (honouring Britain's firmly anti-communist foreign secretary
Ernest Bevin
Ernest Bevin (9 March 1881 – 14 April 1951) was a British statesman, trade union leader, and Labour Party politician. He co-founded and served as General Secretary of the powerful Transport and General Workers' Union in the years 1922–19 ...
). In defiance, Lubetkin buried his memorial to Lenin under the central core to his staircase. The staircase was painted red as part of a restoration in 2014-2016.
![Cranbrook Estate London E2](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/37/Cranbrook_Estate_London_E2.jpg)
Tecton's work would also be a major influence on the
Festival of Britain
The Festival of Britain was a national exhibition and fair that reached millions of visitors throughout the United Kingdom in the summer of 1951. Historian Kenneth O. Morgan says the Festival was a "triumphant success" during which people:
...
. However Lubetkin's efforts to gain employment with the London County Council (the authority with responsibility for building the Festival) were rebuffed.
Frustrated, Lubetkin spent increasing time at the
Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean.
The county town is the city of Gl ...
farm he had managed for Beamish family since the start of World War II, before purchasing it for himself. Though he failed to win several design competitions during the 1950s, he (again with Bailey and Skinner) designed three large council estates in London's
Bethnal Green
Bethnal Green is an area in the East End of London northeast of Charing Cross. The area emerged from the small settlement which developed around the common land, Green, much of which survives today as Bethnal Green Gardens, beside Cambridge Heat ...
(now a part of
Tower Hamlets
The London Borough of Tower Hamlets is a London borough covering much of the traditional East End. It was formed in 1965 from the merger of the former metropolitan boroughs of Stepney, Poplar, and Bethnal Green. 'Tower Hamlets' was originally ...
). These schemes, the
Cranbrook Estate
The Cranbrook Estate is a housing estate in Bethnal Green, London, England. It is located next to Roman Road and is based around a figure of eight street called Mace Street. The estate was designed by Francis Skinner, Douglas Bailey and an elde ...
,
Dorset Estate
The Dorset Estate is a post-war Modernist housing estate in Bethnal Green, London.
Design
The estate was designed by Skinner, Bailey & Lubetkin and completed in 1957. The same architects designed the nearby Sivill House, completed in 1962.
Th ...
(which featured the tower
Sivill House
Sivill House is a Grade II listed 76-flat council housing block on Columbia Road in Shoreditch, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. The building has 19-storeys, at a total height of .
Sivill House was designed in the Constructivist style b ...
) and the
Lakeview Estate
Lakeview Estate is a housing estate in Old Ford, east London designed by Berthold Lubetkin. It was built on a site damaged by bombing in World War II, on Grove Road between Old Ford Road and the Hertford Union Canal
The Hertford Union Canal ...
all made increased use of precast concrete façade panels while developing the idiom of complicated abstract facades and Constructivist staircases established in the 1940s.
Lubetkin eventually moved to Bristol where he lived with his wife. He campaigned in later life to protect the views of
Brunel's Clifton Bridge; for Lubetkin, Brunel epitomised the spirit of technological progress which had first attracted him to England. In 1982, Lubetkin was awarded the
RIBA
The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) is a professional body for architects primarily in the United Kingdom, but also internationally, founded for the advancement of architecture under its royal charter granted in 1837, three suppl ...
Royal Gold Medal
The Royal Gold Medal for architecture is awarded annually by the Royal Institute of British Architects on behalf of the British monarch, in recognition of an individual's or group's substantial contribution to international architecture. It is g ...
. He died in Bristol in 1990. Lubetkin (with Tecton) was the subject of a travelling exhibition sponsored by the Arts Council of Great Britain which opened at the Arnolfini Gallery in Bristol and toured the UK and Europe 1980 – 1983, under the title "Lubetkin and Tecton: architecture and social commitment". This featured specially commissioned models and illustrative material from his archive and was designed by David King. He was also the subject of a Design Museum exhibition in 2005. His daughter, Louise Kehoe, published an award-winning memoir in 1995, 'In This Dark House', which included previously unknown details of Lubetkin's early years.
In 2009,
East Durham & Houghall Community College, based in Peterlee, named its theatre after Lubetkin in honour of the vision he had for the town. The Lubetkin Theatre was officially opened by his daughter Sasha Lubetkin on 5 October 2009. At the opening Sasha Lubetkin said: "I’m immensely proud that this beautiful theatre has been named after my father and that his work is remembered in spite of the brutal way it ended. He had such dreams for Peterlee, he wanted to turn it into the miners capital of the world. His respect and admiration of the miners made him want to create something really special that didn’t exist anywhere else but unfortunately that wasn’t possible."
Peterlee's new theatre honours architect Berthold Lubetkin – Sunderland Echo
/ref>
The British Cement Association established the Berthold Lubetkin Memorial Lecture, the first given by the Japanese architect Tadao Ando
is a Japanese autodidact architect whose approach to architecture and landscape was categorized by architectural historian Francesco Dal Co as "critical regionalism". He is the winner of the 1995 Pritzker Prize.
Early life
Ando was born a few m ...
in 1992, and RIBA the annual Lubetkin Prize for International Architecture.
Associated with Lubetkin
* Ove Arup
Sir Ove Nyquist Arup, CBE, MICE, MIStructE, FCIOB (16 April 1895 – 5 February 1988) was an English engineer who founded Arup Group Limited, a multinational corporation that offers engineering, design, planning, project management, and ...
* Marcel Breuer
Marcel Lajos Breuer ( ; 21 May 1902 – 1 July 1981), was a Hungarian-born modernist architect and furniture designer.
At the Bauhaus he designed the Wassily Chair and the Cesca Chair, which ''The New York Times'' have called some of the most im ...
* Wells Coates
Wells Wintemute Coates OBE (December 17, 1895 – June 17, 1958) was an architect, designer and writer. He was, for most of his life, an expatriate Canadian who is best known for his work in England, the most notable of which is the Modernist bl ...
* Carl Ludwig Franck
* Arthur Korn
* Denys Lasdun
Sir Denys Louis Lasdun, CH, CBE, RA (8 September 1914, Kensington, London – 11 January 2001, Fulham, London) was an eminent English architect, the son of Nathan Lasdun (1879–1920) and Julie ('' née'' Abrahams; 1884–1963). Probably his ...
* Francis Skinner
Sidney George Francis Guy Skinner (191211 October 1941) was a friend, collaborator, and lover of the Austrian philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein.
Biography
He was born in 1912 in Kensington, London, England, and educated at St Paul's School, L ...
See also
* Ernő Goldfinger
Ernő Goldfinger (11 September 1902 – 15 November 1987) was a Hungarian-born architect and designer of furniture. He moved to the United Kingdom in the 1930s, and became a key member of the Modernist architectural movement. He is most prom ...
* Isokon
* MARS Group The Modern Architectural Research Group, or MARS Group, was a British architectural think tank founded in 1933 by several prominent architects and architectural critics of the time involved in the British modernist movement. The MARS Group came afte ...
* Constructivist architecture
Constructivist architecture was a constructivist style of modern architecture that flourished in the Soviet Union in the 1920s and early 1930s. Abstract and austere, the movement aimed to reflect modern industrial society and urban space, while ...
References
Further reading
* Berkovich, Gary. Reclaiming a History. Jewish Architects in Imperial Russia and the USSR. Volume 2. Soviet Avant-garde: 1917–1933. Weimar und Rostock: Grunberg Verlag. 2021. P. 186. * John Allan – ''Lubetkin: Architecture and the Tradition of Progress'' (RIBA Publications, 1992, second expanded edition by Artifice Books, 2013)
* John Allan and Morley von Sternberg – ''Berthold Lubetkin'' (Merrell Publishers, 2002)
* Louise Kehoe – ''In This Dark House: A Memoir'' (Schocken Books, 1995)
* Malcolm Reading and Peter Coe – ''Lubetkin and Tecton: An Architectural Study'' (Triangle Architectural Publications, 1992)
External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lubetkin, Berthold
1900s births
1990 deaths
20th-century Russian architects
20th-century British architects
Constructivist architects
Jewish architects
Modernist architects
Royal Academicians
Russian Jews
Recipients of the Royal Gold Medal
Architects from Tbilisi
Soviet emigrants to the United Kingdom
Vkhutemas alumni