Opinions on Berthold Lubetkin/Tecton

[Panthera1981]

Hello everyone,

I'd like to know people's views upon the exhibit designs of Berthold Lubetkin and the Tecton Group.

Personally, I don't very much care for them. I find them incredibly disfunctional and somewhat disturbing. No effort was made towards the welfare of the animals and they certainly haven't aged very well.

 

[Brum]

Not all of Lubetkin's designs were for animal enclosures, there are the gates at Dudley and London and the kiosks at Dudley which were never designed with animals in mind!

As a lover of zoo history I can appreciate the enclosures as ideal (for their time) and hope that they can still be utilised in some way but not for their original purpose. Saying that, Dudley have actually made the Tecton pits look better now than they have ever appeared in my memory.

Certain enclosures were totally unsuitable though, for example I'm glad London built Penguin Beach and Dudley stopped keeping elephants...

 

[IanRRobinson]

I have been known to remark that there is one good thing to say about Hitler: he prevented London Zoo from having a Lubetkin designed Elephant House.

 

[bongorob]

I don't like them, they are of no value for animals and like the London penguin pool, some of them have to preserved even if most peole do not want them.

Having said that the refurbishment of the Tecton buildings at Dudley is very good.

 

[lamna]

I don't like them, ugly eyesores that can't be touched, taking up space in places with already limited area.

I know they are very important architecturally, but that's not why I go to the zoo.

That being said Dudley have done a pretty good job renovated and finding new uses for their stuff. I hope they get the funding to do something with the Bear Ravine.

 

[Panthera1981]

I have been known to remark that there is one good thing to say about Hitler: he prevented London Zoo from having a Lubetkin designed Elephant House.

Unfortunately he got his hands on the penguins though! I don't think London will ever find a use for it-isn't now a fountain?!? And people STILL think the penguins are in there.

And don't get me started on the elephant house at Whipsnade-a true "white elephant" if ever there was one. Nothing's been done with it since the elephants left. Correct me if I'm wrong Ian, but weren't ZSL quoted at £5m plus for a full renovation? Absurd!

 

[Nanook]

From a zoo- history point of view the Lubetkin Tecton enclosures have an interest for people like myself. But I agree that they are probably regarded as a huge embarrassment to the zoos concerned - mainly Dudley, London and Whipsnade of course, they also prevent further development and hold the zoo back in that respect. Reinforced concrete has never been the most softening, or aesthetically pleasing, material to use for zoo animal enclosures.
But this is the sort of thing that can happen when you let a wild architect loose in a zoo!!

 

[zooman64]

I don't like them at all. Concrete and its big sister, reinforced concrete, never age well, and today most of these relics are ugly, useless icons to a former age, designed with absolutely no understanding of the behavioural needs of the animals that were going to live in them. They should never have been granted listed building status. Ideas on animal husbandry are in a constant state of flux. Enclosures that are considered state of the art today will be looked upon as barely adequate, or worse, in a few years time as our knowledge of animals' requirements increases. Zoos should not be emasculated by preservation orders; they need to be able to sweep away the mistakes and edifices of the past when such buildings have outlived their usefulness - not that the Tecton-designed places were ever much more than architectural white elephants.

 

[adrian1963]

I don't like the concrete stuff myself but don't we think that time as moved on from these building like time will move on from the buildings of today and who's to say some of todays ugly building won't become listed or still be around in 30 years time.