Highpoint II is famed for the caryatids which, for many, signalled a perceived turning away from modernism by Lubetkin. The debate around this has overshadowed the beautifully made entry lobby. It is one of the rare housing projects to adequately balance a vehicular and pedestrian entry sequence. The canopy clearly marks the entry and suggests a strong transition from outside to inside. The inside, however, is marked by strong relationships to the exterior. The bottom-most image in black and white shows how the detailing of the window wall makes the boundary between inside and outside ambiguous. In addition, the ground plane gently rises towards the lifts and along with the integrated planting beds treats the interior ground as a ‘natural’ topography.
- Black & white images (apart from bottom-most) courtesy of the London Metropolitan Archive (https://collage.cityoflondon.gov.uk).
- Streetviews courtesy of Google Maps.
- Colour images of lobby from wowhaus.co.uk.
- Plan, diagrams, and bottom-most black & white image from Berthold Lubetkin: Architecture and the tradition of progress, John Allan, RIBA Publications, 1992.
Bibliography
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