Berthold Lubetkin was born in Tbilisi, Russian Empire (now Georgia) in 1901, studying at the SVOMAS (free art) studios in St Petersburg and Moscow, and finally at the Vkhutemas (School of Industrial Art and Architecture) in Moscow. He furthered his studies in Berlin and Paris, before moving to London in 1931, where he co-founded the radical architectural studio Tecton and became one of the most important architects of the Modern Movement in Britain. His most notable works in the UK include the Penguin Pool at London Zoo and Highpoint One and Two housing blocks in Highgate, London.
Architect Berthold (Romanovich) Lubetkin was born to a liberal Jewish family in Tbilisi, Russian Empire (now Georgia) in 1901. He studied at the Stroganov Art School in Moscow from the age of 15, subsequently attending the SVOMAS (free art) studios in St Petersburg and Moscow, and finally the Vkhutemas (School of Industrial Art and Architecture) in Moscow. As a teenager, he witnessed the Bolshevik October Revolution of 1917 from his bedroom window, later mixing with revolutionaries and key figures of the Constructivist art movement, among them, Alexander Rodchenko, Vladimir Tatlin, Malevich and Mayakovsky. In 1922 he moved to Berlin and attended the Bauschule at the Technische Hochschule, Charlottenburg, and the Höhere Fachschule für Textil und Bekleidungsindustrie (1922–3). In 1925 he relocated to Paris, where he studied at the École Spéciale d'Architecture, Institut d'Urbanisme, École Supérieure de Béton Armé, and École des Beaux-Arts (training under Auguste Perret, one of the pioneers of the use of reinforced concrete in architecture); he also became acquainted with modernist architect, Le Corbusier. Lubetkin's first significant building was a nine-storey apartment block in avenue de Versailles, Paris, realised together with Jean Ginsberg and exhibiting the fundamental aspects of Modernist architecture.
Sensing diminishing professional opportunities in Paris, Lubetkin made several exploratory trips to London. Impressed by English traditions of tolerance and scientific progress, he moved there in 1931. He soon realised, however, that Modernism was still in its infacny in Britain and that he could therefore leave his mark on the country. The following year he co-founded, with six British architects, the radical architectural studio Tecton, which soon became the most prominent exponent of the Modern Movement in Britain. Although all Tecton architects were considered as equals, Lubetkin, with his continental experience and charismatic personality, became the leader of the group. Lubetkin's buildings were geometric, functional and characterised by technical ingenuity. However, becoming alarmed with what he began to perceive as the ‘aesthetic bankruptcy’ of functionalism, Lubetkin dissociated himself from this ‘contemporary doctrine’, and sought a deeper synthesis of human, architectural, and philosophical values (Diehl 1999, p. 234). Unlike most of the designs associated with the international style, Tecton compositions were playful, and the method of presenting projects was unusual, with the rationale of a scheme depicted in witty cartoons and slogans, such as the exhibition display panel showing the design for the Finsbury Health Centre, London, 1938 (RIBA Collection). Early projects by Tecton included pioneering buildings for London Zoo: the gorilla house and a penguin pool, the latter informed by the work of Russian émigré, Naum Gabo. Tecton was also commissioned by London Zoo to design a completely new zoo in Dudley in the West Midlands. Dudley Zoo included twelve animal enclosures (all of which survive apart from the penguin pool) and was a unique example of early modernism in England. The most famous of Tecton's housing projects were two modern landmarks in Highgate: Highpoint One and Highpoint Two. In Highpoint One, built in 1935 and singled out for particular praise by Le Corbusier, Lubetkin addressed the problem of improved housing through the social and formal principles of the Modern Movement. Constructed using cast-in-place concrete composed in a cruciform plan of extended wings, the design offered maximum exposure to sun and light. Highpoint Two, built three years later in 1938, employed a richer array of materials and controversially incorporated facsimile Greek caryatid figures to support the entrance canopy.
In 1934 Lubetkin’s detached three bedroom villa (Heath Drive, Romford), demonstrating the best features of the Tecton group style, won a Gold Medal at the annual Modern Homes Exhibition. Two years later, Lubetkin and Tecton established the Architects and Technicians Organisation in 1936. Among Tecton's major patrons was the Labour council in the former London Borough of Finsbury. In 1938 the council commissioned Finsbury Health Centre, which combined the aesthetic and political principles of Modernism with the radical socialism of the Borough. The Health Centre represented a synthesis of three modernist ideal. First, a social function: a decade before the NHS, universal access to healthcare free at the point of use for the borough's residents; second, a political function: a building for the community was not achieved through charity, but was provided by a democratically elected authority, funded through local taxation; and third, the aesthetic: the building featured a tiled façade which stood out against the surrounding slums, ‘rising like a gleaming vision of a brave new world‘, as described by Jewish designer Abram Games (Glancey 2010), its rational conception affirming the ideal of a socialist future. In 1947 Lubetkin was appointed architect–planner for Peterlee New Town, near Durham, in north east England, a proposed urban centre for the local mining community. However, the project was never realised due to technical difficulties of building over an active coalfield.
After Tecton was dissolved in 1947, Lubetkin worked with Francis Skinner and Douglas Bailey on large scale housing projects. Lubetkin was awarded the Royal Gold Medal in 1982 and was elected a Senior Academician at the Royal Academy of Arts, London on 31 May 1989. Berthold Lubetkin died in Bristol, England in 1990. His work is represented in UK public collections including the RIBA Library Drawings Collection and Victoria & Albert Museum, London.