Berthold Lubetkin - Early Years

Early Years

Berthold Lubetkin was born in Tiflis (now the capital of Georgia) into a Jewish family. His father, Roman Aronovich Lubetkin (1885, St. Petersburg - 1942, Auschwitz), was a railroad engineer. Lubetkin studied in Moscow and Leningrad where he witnessed the Russian Revolution of 1917 and absorbed elements of Constructivism, both as a participant in street festivals and as a student at VKhUTEMAS.

Lubetkin practiced in Paris in the 1920s in partnership with Jean Ginsburg, with whom he designed an apartment building on the Avenue de Versailles (number 25). In Paris he associated with the leading figures of the European Avant Garde including Le Corbusier. He continued to participate in the debates of Constructivism, designing a trade pavilion for the USSR in Bordeaux and participating in the Palace of the Soviets competition, for which his entry was shortlisted.