Holly Frindle Bungalow

Details

SP 91 NE
967/19/5
1/9/88

WHIPSNADE
WHIPSNADE ZOO
Holly Frindle Bungalow

II*

Bungalow. 1933-6 by Berthold Lubetkin of Lubetkin and Tecton. Reinforced concrete frame with cork insulation, on concrete foundations with some `thermalite' panels. Flat roof. Single storey. `T'-shaped plan with living room to south-west, bedrooms and bathroom to north-east arranged along tapering corridor and kitchen to north-west. The building is cantilevered from the concrete foundations, to give the effect of a dark plinth or `flashgap'. Entrance to west, from open terrace enclosed by high blind walls, having a large open vista set opposite the kitchen window; the wall of the open terrace forms a semi-circular enclosure to north, encompassing circular flower bed. South-west elevation has five-bay living room to right, having four horizontal lights to each bay set in steel frames, separated by concrete mullions and transoms; the centre lights are glazed, the upper retain insulated glass panels while the lowest row have been replaced. The central steel windows with pivoting opening lights; others renewed in 1996. Bedroom and bathroom wing with similar glazing to that of living room on south-east side; corridor wall to north-west side of this wing is blind except for narrow strip below roof slab, and for circular rooflights. Glazed brick band around entrance door. Dining area has curved screen to rear wall which emerges above roofline outside the building, incorporating shelf.
One of two bungalows designed as a pair by Lubetkin, the other intended for his own use and also listed grade II*. The two buildings are the only private houses designed by Lubetkin himself, rather than by the junior partners of Tecton, and - though very small - encompass many of the ideas of free planning and the opening up of facades to admit greater areas of light found in his later, larger works, such as Highpoint II and the Finsbury Health Centre in London, themselves listed in high grades.
The small weekend house, appearing to float over the landscape because of its recessed plinth, was also to be extremely influential in the post-war period when Lubetkin's ideas of concrete framing were more widely adopted. The idiom itself, of a weekend house in a beautiful setting, owes much to Lubetkin's experience in his native Russia. `As in so many cases where an architect is his own client, the Whipsnade bungalows enabled Lubetkin to explore and confirm innumerable ideas redeployed subsequently in larger works. Seldom can so many architectural seedlings have been compressed into so small a project' (John Allan, Berthold Lubetkin, 1992, p.188).
Architectural Review, vol. 81, 1937 `Whipsnade Manifesto', pp.60-64. Peter Coe and Malcolm Reading, `Lubetkin and Tecton, Architecture and Social Commitment', 1981, pp.117-119 John Allan, `Berthold Lubetkin and the Tradition of Progress', 1992, pp.180-189.

Listing NGR: SP9983016894

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

36186

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Coe, P, Reading, M, Lubetkin and Tecton Architecture and Social Commitment, (1981), 117-119
Allan, J, Berthold Lubetkin Architecture and the Tradition of Progress, (2012), 180-189
Architectural Review in Architectural Review, Vol. 81, (1937), 60-64

End of official list entry

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