Berthold Lubetkin Biography, Buildings and Best Books

Berthold Lubetkin (1901-1990) was a Georgian-born architect who became one of the pioneers of modern architecture in Britain. With his practice Tecton he designed the Penguin Pool and Gorilla House at London Zoo, the Highpoint apartment blocks in Highgate and the Finsbury Health Centre, and after the war he built social housing in Finsbury, convinced that “nothing is too good for ordinary people”.

Tiflis, Moscow and Paris

Lubetkin was born in Tiflis (now Tbilisi), Georgia, in 1901. He studied in Moscow at the Vkhutemas art and technical studios during the Russian Revolution, then in Berlin and Warsaw, and in Paris, where he attended the atelier of Auguste Perret and the École Spéciale d’Architecture and built an apartment building on the Avenue de Versailles.

Tecton and London Zoo

Lubetkin moved to London in 1931 and in 1932 founded Tecton with a group of young architects. With the engineer Ove Arup, Tecton designed the Gorilla House (1933) and the Penguin Pool (1934) at London Zoo, whose interlocking spiral ramps of thin reinforced concrete became a landmark of modern design in Britain.

Highpoint and Finsbury

Highpoint I in Highgate (1935), a cross-shaped block of flats with a white concrete frame, was praised by Le Corbusier, and Highpoint II (1938) followed next door. The Finsbury Health Centre (1938), commissioned by a progressive borough council, embodied Lubetkin’s belief in architecture as an instrument of social reform.

Postwar housing and the Gold Medal

After the war Lubetkin designed large housing estates for Finsbury, including Spa Green (1949), Bevin Court (1954), with its spectacular staircase, and the Priory Green estate. Disillusioned after the failure of his plans for the new town of Peterlee, he withdrew to farming in Gloucestershire. He received the RIBA Royal Gold Medal in 1982 and died in Bristol in 1990.