Berthold Lubetkin

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Berthold Lubetkin (born December 14, 1901 in Tbilisi ; † October 23, 1990 ) was a Russian architect who emigrated to England , where he was one of the pioneers of modernism in the 1930s.

Life

Lubetkin was the only child of a middle-class, sociable Jewish family. His parents took him on extensive trips to Europe. He got to know Austria, Germany, Belgium, France, England and Scandinavia early on. Young Lubetkin spent most of his childhood with adults, studying books. The family moved to St. Petersburg and later to Moscow .

When the Russian Revolution broke out in 1917 , Lubetkin was a young art student in Moscow. He could follow them from the front door and initially supported the socialists with body and soul. He joined the Constructivists and brought art to the streets by helping to create the May Day Parade and the Revolution Birthday Festival. In the subsequent architecture studies in Moscow, Konstantin Stepanowitsch Melnikow , Wesnin , Golosow and Ginsburg, among others, lectured .

Lubetkin left Russia in 1922 and, after a three-year stay in Germany and Poland, arrived in modern Paris, where he assisted Melnikow at the Soviet pavilion for the 1925 Paris International Applied Arts Exhibition, which was built by Le Corbusier opposite the Pavillon de l'esprit nouveau . Lubetkin was fascinated by Le Corbusier's works and studied them throughout his life. After post-graduate studies at the école spéciale d'architecture , Lubetkin was able to work with Auguste Perret , who was an excellent teacher and gave the young architect excellent reviews of his work.

In partnership with Jean Ginsberg , Lubetkin later designed a building on the Avenue de Versailles in Paris, which made him famous. He was thereby u. a. compared to Le Corbusier.

In 1931 the architect emigrated to London. The staunch socialist Lubetkin saw how ambitious and tolerant Great Britain was compared to the rest of Europe and especially the Soviet Union . He co-founded the Tecton bureau, which debuted in 1932. Tecton consisted mainly of immigrant architects who wanted to bring modernism to England.

The gorilla house and penguin pool at the London Zoo were among the firm's first orders. They also planned, among other things, the zoo in Dudley, which was considered a unique example of modernism in England, the East Ham Chest Clinic Highpoint one , Highpoint two and many others that followed.

Appealing and impressive publications of the projects were also part of the office's recipe for success.

Web links

Commons : Berthold Lubetkin  - collection of images, videos and audio files