Berthold Lubetkin (1901-1990) was a pioneer of modernist architecture in Britain. He was born in Georgia to a Jewish family, and while studying in Moscow witnessed the birth of the Russian revolution at first hand, which was to greatly influence his political and artistic thought. Later he continued his architectural education in France, where he met Le Corbusier and fell in love with the rational, beautiful and above all functional reinforced concrete buildings being created by Modernist architects in and around Paris. In 1930 he came to England and established the Tecton Group, which would become the leader of the British Modernist movement. Their famous buildings in the UK include the Gorilla House and the fabulous Penguin Pool at London Zoo, Highpoint One flats in Highgate, the Finsbury Health Centre, and the Spa Green housing estate - designed to provide decent affordable housing for workers - also in Finsbury. All were built of clean, white concrete with dramatic, clean lines which contrasted heavily with the cramped and dingy Victorian buildings surrounding them.