Berthold Lubetkin
Encyclopedia
Berthold Romanovich Lubetkin (14 December 1901 — 23 October 1990) was a Russian émigré architect
who pioneered modernist
design in Britain
in the 1930s. His work includes the Highpoint housing complex
, London Zoo penguin pool, Finsbury Health Centre
and Spa Green Estate
.
(now the capital of Georgia
) into a Jewish family. His father, Roman Aronovich Lubetkin (1885, St. Petersburg - 1942, Auschwitz), was a railroad engineer. 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 (number 25). 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.
Emigrating to London
in 1931, Lubetkin set up the architectural practice Tecton
. 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
). 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 Zoo
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
, one of the UK's few modernist terraces at 85-91 Genesta Road
in 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.
A detached three bedroom villa (Heath Drive, Romford) which won a Gold Medal at the local '1934 Modern Homes Exhibition' is interesting in that study of its layout and the floating horizontals of the elevations strongly suggest that it was used as a design prototype for Highpoint One's final form. Sympathetically restored under the supervision of English Heritage and listed Grade2, this villa is regarded by many as demonstrating the best features of the Tecton group style.
The Labour Party
council in the Metropolitan Borough of Finsbury
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.
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
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. 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.
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
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.
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
) at the Hallfield Estate
. These all showed a more decorative, patterned style which contrasted greatly with the Brutalist 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.
For most of these projects Lubetkin and Tecton worked closely with Ove Arup
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
new town. 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
(NCB), itself an agency of the Ministry of Fuel and Power 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
to complete (in collaboration with Francis Skinner
) 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. Instead Lubetkin 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.
But the scheme marked a shift in British housing policy. To save costs, Lubetkin successfully made significant use of prefabricated floor and wall components. Less beneficially, the diminished social provision forced on the architects by the reduced budget would be repeated with far worse consequences across post-war Britain. And also beyond the control of the architects was a political statement. 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
). In defiance, Lubetkin buried his memorial to Lenin under the central core to his staircase. To this day it underpins the social heart of the building, perhaps waiting for a more promising future.
Tecton's work would also be a major influence on the Festival of Britain
. 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
farm he had managed since the start of WWII. 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
(now a part of Tower Hamlets
). These schemes, the Cranbrook Estate
, Dorset Estate (which featured the tower Sivill House
) and the Lakeview Estate
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
Royal Gold Medal
. He died in Bristol in 1990. Lubetkin was the subject of a Design Museum exhibition in 2005. His daughter, Louise Kehoe, published an award-winning memoir in 1995 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."
The Royal Institute of British Architects
established the Berthold Lubetkin Memorial Lecture, the first given by the Japanese architect Tadao Ando
in 1992, and the annual Lubetkin Prize for International Architecture.
Architecture
Architecture is both the process and product of planning, designing and construction. Architectural works, in the material form of buildings, are often perceived as cultural and political symbols and as works of art...
who pioneered modernist
International style (architecture)
The International style is a major architectural style that emerged in the 1920s and 1930s, the formative decades of Modern architecture. The term originated from the name of a book by Henry-Russell Hitchcock and Philip Johnson, The International Style...
design in Britain
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
in the 1930s. His work includes the Highpoint housing complex
Highpoint I
Highpoint I was the first of two apartment blocks erected in the 1930s on one of the highest points in London, England at Highgate. The architectural design was by Russian-born architect Berthold Lubetkin, the structural design by Danish engineer Ove Arup and the construction by Kier.Highpoint I...
, London Zoo penguin pool, Finsbury Health Centre
Finsbury Health Centre
The Finsbury Health Centre in the Finsbury area of London, England, built in 1935-38, was designed by Berthold Lubetkin and the Tecton architecture practice...
and Spa Green Estate
Spa Green Estate
Spa Green Estate between Rosebery Avenue and St John St in Clerkenwell, London EC1, is the most complete post-war realization of a 1930s radical plan for social regeneration through Modernist architecture. Originally conceived as public housing, it is now a mixed community of private owners and...
.
Early years
Berthold Lubetkin was born in TiflisTbilisi
Tbilisi is the capital and the largest city of Georgia, lying on the banks of the Mt'k'vari River. The name is derived from an early Georgian form T'pilisi and it was officially known as Tiflis until 1936...
(now the capital of Georgia
Georgia (country)
Georgia is a sovereign state in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the southwest by Turkey, to the south by Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan. The capital of...
) into a Jewish family. His father, Roman Aronovich Lubetkin (1885, St. Petersburg - 1942, Auschwitz), was a railroad engineer. Lubetkin studied in Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
and Leningrad
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...
where he witnessed the Russian Revolution of 1917
Russian Revolution of 1917
The Russian Revolution is the collective term for a series of revolutions in Russia in 1917, which destroyed the Tsarist autocracy and led to the creation of the Soviet Union. The Tsar was deposed and replaced by a provisional government in the first revolution of February 1917...
and absorbed elements of Constructivism
Constructivist architecture
Constructivist architecture was a form of modern architecture that flourished in the Soviet Union in the 1920s and early 1930s. It combined advanced technology and engineering with an avowedly Communist social purpose. Although it was divided into several competing factions, the movement produced...
, both as a participant in street festivals and as a student at VKhUTEMAS
VKhUTEMAS
Vkhutemas ) was the Russian state art and technical school founded in 1920 in Moscow, replacing the Moscow Svomas. The workshops were established by a decree from Vladimir Lenin with the intentions, in the words of the Soviet government, "to prepare master artists of the highest qualifications for...
.
Lubetkin practiced in Paris in the 1920s in partnership with Jean Ginsburg, with whom he designed an apartment building on the Avenue de Versailles (number 25). In Paris he associated with the leading figures of the European Avant Garde including Le Corbusier
Le Corbusier
Charles-Édouard Jeanneret, better known as Le Corbusier , was a Swiss-born French architect, designer, urbanist, writer and painter, famous for being one of the pioneers of what now is called modern architecture. He was born in Switzerland and became a French citizen in 1930...
. He continued to participate in the debates of Constructivism
Constructivist architecture
Constructivist architecture was a form of modern architecture that flourished in the Soviet Union in the 1920s and early 1930s. It combined advanced technology and engineering with an avowedly Communist social purpose. Although it was divided into several competing factions, the movement produced...
, 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
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
in 1931, Lubetkin set up the architectural practice Tecton
Tecton Group
The Tecton Group was a radical architectural group co-founded by Berthold Lubetkin, Francis Skinner, Denys Lasdun, Godfrey Samuel, and Lindsay Drake in 1932. The name Tecton came from architecton, the Greek word for architecture...
. The first projects of TECTON included landmark buildings for London Zoo
London Zoo
London Zoo is the world's oldest scientific zoo. It was opened in London on 27 April 1828, and was originally intended to be used as a collection for scientific study. It was eventually opened to the public in 1847...
, the gorilla house and a penguin pool (clearly showing the influence of Naum Gabo
Naum Gabo
Naum Gabo KBE, born Naum Neemia Pevsner was a prominent Russian sculptor in the Constructivism movement and a pioneer of Kinetic Art.-Early life:...
). 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
Dudley is a large town in the West Midlands county of England. At the 2001 census , the Dudley Urban Sub Area had a population of 194,919, making it the 26th largest settlement in England, the second largest town in the United Kingdom behind Reading, and the largest settlement in the UK without...
. Dudley Zoo
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...
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
Sydenham is an area and electoral ward in the London Borough of Lewisham; although some streets towards Crystal Palace Park, Forest Hill and Penge are outside the ward and in the London Borough of Bromley, and some streets off Sydenham Hill are in the London Borough of Southwark. Sydenham was in...
, one of the UK's few modernist terraces at 85-91 Genesta Road
85-91 Genesta Road
85-91 Genesta Road are four terraced houses, in the London Borough of Greenwich, located south of Plumstead, north of Shooter's Hill near Plumstead Common, and are the United Kingdom's only modernist terrace, designed by the architectural pioneer Berthold Lubetkin...
in Plumstead
Plumstead
Plumstead is a district of south London, England, located in the London Borough of Greenwich. Plumstead is a multi cultural area with large Asian and Afro-Caribbean communities, in similarity to local areas such as Woolwich and Thamesmead...
, south London, and most famously the Highpoint
Highpoint I
Highpoint I was the first of two apartment blocks erected in the 1930s on one of the highest points in London, England at Highgate. The architectural design was by Russian-born architect Berthold Lubetkin, the structural design by Danish engineer Ove Arup and the construction by Kier.Highpoint I...
apartments in Highgate
Highgate
Highgate is an area of North London on the north-eastern corner of Hampstead Heath.Highgate is one of the most expensive London suburbs in which to live. It has an active conservation body, the Highgate Society, to protect its character....
. Highpoint One was singled out for particular praise by Le Corbusier
Le Corbusier
Charles-Édouard Jeanneret, better known as Le Corbusier , was a Swiss-born French architect, designer, urbanist, writer and painter, famous for being one of the pioneers of what now is called modern architecture. He was born in Switzerland and became a French citizen in 1930...
, while Highpoint Two exhibited a more surreal style, with its patterned facade and caryatids at the entrance.
A detached three bedroom villa (Heath Drive, Romford) which won a Gold Medal at the local '1934 Modern Homes Exhibition' is interesting in that study of its layout and the floating horizontals of the elevations strongly suggest that it was used as a design prototype for Highpoint One's final form. Sympathetically restored under the supervision of English Heritage and listed Grade2, this villa is regarded by many as demonstrating the best features of the Tecton group style.
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
council in the Metropolitan Borough of Finsbury
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.- Boundaries :...
were major patrons of Tecton, commissioning the Finsbury Health Centre
Finsbury Health Centre
The Finsbury Health Centre in the Finsbury area of London, England, built in 1935-38, was designed by Berthold Lubetkin and the Tecton architecture practice...
, 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.
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
Abram Games OBE, RDI was a British graphic designer.Born Abraham Gamse in Whitechapel, London on the day World War I began in 1914, he was the son of Joseph Gamse, a Latvian photographer, and Sarah, a seamstress born on the border of Russia and Poland. His father anglicized the family name to...
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. 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
Aneurin Bevan
Aneurin "Nye" Bevan was a British Labour Party politician who was the Deputy Leader of the Labour Party from 1959 until his death in 1960. The son of a coal miner, Bevan was a lifelong champion of social justice and the rights of working people...
laid the foundation stone to Tecton/Finsbury's Spa Green Estate
Spa Green Estate
Spa Green Estate between Rosebery Avenue and St John St in Clerkenwell, London EC1, is the most complete post-war realization of a 1930s radical plan for social regeneration through Modernist architecture. Originally conceived as public housing, it is now a mixed community of private owners and...
in winter 1946. Spa Green remained the flagship estate, adapting many features from the luxury Highpoint
Highpoint
Highpoint can refer to:*Highpoint, Florida, an unincorporated community near Tampa Bay*Highpoint Center for Printmaking, a print workshop in Minneapolis*Highpoint Shopping Centre in Melbourne, Australia*Highpoint I, a set of apartment buildings in London...
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.
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
Denys Lasdun
Sir Denys Lasdun CH was an eminent English architect. Probably his best known work is the Royal National Theatre, on London's South Bank of the Thames, which is a Grade II* listed building and one of the most notable examples of Brutalist design in the United Kingdom.Lasdun studied at the...
) at the Hallfield Estate
Hallfield Estate
The Hallfield Estate is one of several modernist housing projects in London designed in the immediate post-war period by the Tecton architecture practice, led by Berthold Lubetkin. Following the dissolution of Tecton, the project was realised by Denys Lasdun and Lindsay Drake in the 1950s...
. These all showed a more decorative, patterned style which contrasted greatly with the Brutalist 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.
For most of these projects Lubetkin and Tecton worked closely with Ove Arup
Ove Arup
Sir Ove Nyquist Arup, CBE, MICE, MIStructE known as Ove Arup, was a leading Anglo-Danish engineer and generally considered to be one of the foremost architectural structural engineers of his time...
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
Peterlee is a new town in County Durham, England. Founded in 1948, Peterlee town originally mostly housed coal miners and their families.Peterlee has strong economic and community ties with Sunderland and Hartlepool.-Peterlee:...
new town. The following year Tecton was dissolved. Commenting on this, Lubetkin wrote to fellow Tecton member Carl Ludwig Franck
Carl Ludwig Franck
Carl Ludwig Franck , the youngest son of the German painter Philipp Franck, was an architect who practiced in the United Kingdom from the 1930s to the 1960s. He was a member of the architectural practice Tecton from the late 1930s to its dissolution in 1948...
"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
National Coal Board
The National Coal Board 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 mines on "vesting day", 1 January 1947...
(NCB), itself an agency of the Ministry of Fuel and Power 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
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.- Boundaries :...
to complete (in collaboration with Francis Skinner
Francis Skinner (architect)
Francis Skinner Russell Thomas Francis Skinner was the longest-serving member of Tecton, the architectural practice founded by Berthold Lubetkin in 1932 that pioneered the Modern Movement in Britain...
) 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. Instead Lubetkin 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.
But the scheme marked a shift in British housing policy. To save costs, Lubetkin successfully made significant use of prefabricated floor and wall components. Less beneficially, the diminished social provision forced on the architects by the reduced budget would be repeated with far worse consequences across post-war Britain. And also beyond the control of the architects was a political statement. Before the building was completed the Cold war had intensified and as a result the scheme was renamed Bevin Court
Bevin Court
Bevin Court is one of several modernist housing projects in London designed in the immediate post-war period by the Tecton architecture practice, led by Berthold Lubetkin. Following the dissolution of Tecton, the project was realised by Lubetkin, Francis Skinner and Douglas Bailey...
(honouring Britain's firmly anti-communist foreign secretary Ernest Bevin
Ernest Bevin
Ernest Bevin was a British trade union leader and Labour politician. He served as general secretary of the powerful Transport and General Workers' Union from 1922 to 1945, as Minister of Labour in the war-time coalition government, and as Foreign Secretary in the post-war Labour Government.-Early...
). In defiance, Lubetkin buried his memorial to Lenin under the central core to his staircase. To this day it underpins the social heart of the building, perhaps waiting for a more promising future.
Tecton's work would also be a major influence on the Festival of Britain
Festival of Britain
The Festival of Britain was a national exhibition in Britain in the summer of 1951. It was organised by the government to give Britons a feeling of recovery in the aftermath of war and to promote good quality design in the rebuilding of British towns and cities. The Festival's centrepiece was in...
. 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
Gloucestershire 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....
farm he had managed since the start of WWII. 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
Metropolitan Borough of Bethnal Green
Bethnal Green was a civil parish and a metropolitan borough in the East End of London, England. It was formed as a civil parish in 1743 from the Bethnal Green hamlet in Stepney ancient parish. The vestry became an electing authority to the Metropolitan Board of Works in 1855 and in 1889 it became...
(now a part of Tower Hamlets
London Borough of Tower Hamlets
The London Borough of Tower Hamlets is a London borough to the east of the City of London and north of the River Thames. It is in the eastern part of London and covers much of the traditional East End. It also includes much of the redeveloped Docklands region of London, including West India Docks...
). These schemes, the Cranbrook Estate
Cranbrook Estate
The Cranbrook Estate is a housing estate in Bethnal Green, East London designed by Berthold Lubetkin.The site, which is east of Bonner Street and north of Roman Road, was called Cranbrook after the central street...
, Dorset Estate (which featured the tower Sivill House
Sivill House
Sivill House is a 76-flat council housing block on Columbia Road in Bethnal Green, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. The building has 20-storeys, at a total height of 59 metres....
) and the Lakeview Estate
Lakeview Estate
Lakeview Estate is a housing estate in Bow, 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 estate opened in 1958. It overlooks the lake in Victoria Park....
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
Riba
Riba means one of the senses of "usury" . Riba is forbidden in Islamic economic jurisprudence fiqh and considered as a major sin...
Royal Gold Medal
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....
. He died in Bristol in 1990. Lubetkin was the subject of a Design Museum exhibition in 2005. His daughter, Louise Kehoe, published an award-winning memoir in 1995 which included previously unknown details of Lubetkin's early years.
In 2009 East Durham & Houghall Community College
East Durham & Houghall Community College
East Durham College, formerly known as East Durham & Houghall Community College, is a community college with campuses in Peterlee and Houghall, south-east of Durham....
, 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."
The Royal Institute of British Architects
Royal Institute of British Architects
The Royal Institute of British Architects is a professional body for architects primarily in the United Kingdom, but also internationally.-History:...
established the Berthold Lubetkin Memorial Lecture, the first given by the Japanese architect Tadao Ando
Tadao Ando
is a Japanese architect whose approach to architecture was once categorized by Francesco Dal Co as critical regionalism. Ando has led a storied life, working as a truck driver and boxer prior to settling on the profession of architecture, despite never having taken formal training in the field...
in 1992, and the annual Lubetkin Prize for International Architecture.
- Ove ArupOve ArupSir Ove Nyquist Arup, CBE, MICE, MIStructE known as Ove Arup, was a leading Anglo-Danish engineer and generally considered to be one of the foremost architectural structural engineers of his time...
- Douglas Bailey
- Marcel BreuerMarcel BreuerMarcel Lajos Breuer , was a Hungarian-born modernist, architect and furniture designer of Jewish descent. One of the masters of Modernism, Breuer displayed interest in modular construction and simple forms.- Life and work :Known to his friends and associates as Lajkó, Breuer studied and taught at...
- Wells CoatesWells CoatesWells Wintemute Coates OBE was an architect, designer and writer. He was, for most of his life, an ex-patriate Canadian architect who is best known for his work in England...
- Carl Ludwig FranckCarl Ludwig FranckCarl Ludwig Franck , the youngest son of the German painter Philipp Franck, was an architect who practiced in the United Kingdom from the 1930s to the 1960s. He was a member of the architectural practice Tecton from the late 1930s to its dissolution in 1948...
- Arthur KornArthur Korn (architect)Arthur Korn was a German Jewish architect and urban planner who was a proponent of modernism in Germany and the UK.-Life and career:...
- Denys LasdunDenys LasdunSir Denys Lasdun CH was an eminent English architect. Probably his best known work is the Royal National Theatre, on London's South Bank of the Thames, which is a Grade II* listed building and one of the most notable examples of Brutalist design in the United Kingdom.Lasdun studied at the...
- Francis Skinner (architect)Francis Skinner (architect)Francis Skinner Russell Thomas Francis Skinner was the longest-serving member of Tecton, the architectural practice founded by Berthold Lubetkin in 1932 that pioneered the Modern Movement in Britain...
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
- Malcolm Reading and Peter Coe - Lubetkin and Tecton: An Architectural Study (Triangle Architectural Publications, 1992) ISBN 1-871825-01-6
External links
- Twentieth Century Society article on Dudley Zoo
- Lubetkin at A&A
- Tecton at A&A
- Lubetkin's Sivill House, Bethnal Green, London E2
- Spa Green Tenants' Website
- Utopia London, Website of film documentary exploring impact of Lubetkin's work in Finsbury
- Short film on Lubetkin's buildings at Dudley Zoo
- Short film on Lubetkin and his Spa Green Estate