Topic 8 - 'Penguin Pool' by Berthold Lubetkin, 1934

when was it built?

1934

who helped Lubetkin design it?

Tecton group

Social aspects to Lubetkin’s work were always…

paramount

Seen as a key example of…

British modernist architecture

who did Lubetkin work on the pool with?

structural engineer, Ove Arup and biologist, Julian Huxley

a design made up of…

curvilinear, cantilevered, interlocking concrete slabs

the pool is …. in shape

elliptical

designed for what type of penguin?

Antarctic penguins

the zoo attempted to swap these penguins for south American Humboldt penguins who likes to…

burrow

the V&A musuem described the pool as…

‘One of the first to demonstrate the expressive and structural potential of reinforced concrete’

it functioned as both…

a home for the penguins and a showcase of modern engineering

the pool incorporated a…

deep glass-fronted diving tank and timber nesting boxes around the sides

it was designed on the philosophy of…

‘behaviourism’ - animal behaviour as determined by the external environment

the main feature was the…

interlocking curved ramps which gave a dynamic feel to the structure as well as a central stage to display the penguins

originally incorporated a variety of flooring materials including…

slate steps, concrete, and plastic rubber made of cork chippings, rubber and cement

concrete was cast in…

slabs rather than as columns or beams, Arup believed that this would allow for greater freedom of shape

every ramps was reinforced with…

diagonal as well as horizontal and vertical steel cables in a helix-like mesh to strengthen the graceful thinness of the ramp

the penguins were eventually moved out of the enclosure due to…

a bacterial infection called bumblefoot, caused by scratches from walking on concrete

John Allen claimed that…

it was due to the zoo overriding the original design features and replacing the original rubber compound flooring with concrete that the penguins suffered from bumblefoot.