Highpoint I was the first of two apartment blocks erected in the 1930s on one of the highest points in London, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 at 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....

. The architectural design was by Russian

Russians

The Russian people are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Russia, speaking the Russian language and primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries....

-born architect

Architect

An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...

 Berthold Lubetkin

Berthold Lubetkin

Berthold Romanovich Lubetkin 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.-Early years:Berthold Lubetkin was born in Tiflis into a Jewish...

, the structural design by Danish engineer 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...

 and the construction by Kier

Kier Group

Kier Group plc is a construction, services and property group active in building and civil engineering, support services, public and private housebuilding, land development and the Private Finance Initiative...

.

Highpoint I was built in 1935 for the entrepreneur Sigmund Gestetner, but was never used for its intended purpose of housing Gestetner staff. One of the best examples of early International style

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...

 architecture in London, this block of 64 flats was very innovative in its day.

When the building was completed, it became widely renowned as the finest example of this form of construction for residential purposes. When Corbusier himself visited Highpoint in 1935 he said, "This beautiful building .... at Highgate is an achievement of the first rank." And American critic Henry Russell Hitchcock called it, "One of the finest, if not absolutely the finest, middle-class housing projects in the world." In 1970 this reputation gained official recognition when both Highpoint blocks were classified Grade I within the historic buildings listing programme.

The second Lubetkin building in the same style, Highpoint II, was completed on an adjoining site in 1938.

Architectural

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...

 historian

History

History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...

 Dan Cruickshank

Dan Cruickshank

Dan Cruickshank is an art historian and BBC television presenter.-Early life:As a young child he lived for some years in Poland...

 selected Highpoint as one of his eight choices for the 2002

2002 in literature

The year 2002 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*March 16: Authorities in Saudi Arabia arrested and jailed poet Abdul Mohsen Musalam and fired a newspaper editor following the publication of Musalam's poem The Corrupt on Earth that criticized the state's Islamic...

 BBC

BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

 book The Story of Britain's Best Buildings.

External links

• http://www.designmuseum.org/design/berthold-lubetkin
• http://housingprototypes.org/project?File_No=ENG002
• http://www.open2.net/modernity/3_4.htm
• http://www.architectureweek.com/2003/0409/culture_1-1.html