Metadata : The Erno Goldfinger Papers
Collection
- Country:
- United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
- Holding institution:
- Royal Institute of British Architects
- Holding institution (official language):
- Royal Institute of British Architects
- Postal address:
- British Architectural Library,Drawings and Archives Collections,Victoria and Albert Museum,Cromwell RoadLondonGreater LondonUnited KingdomSW7 2RL
- Country:
- United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
- Holding institution:
- Royal Institute of British Architects
- Holding institution (official language):
- Royal Institute of British Architects
- Postal address:
- British Architectural Library,Drawings and Archives Collections,Victoria and Albert Museum,Cromwell RoadLondonGreater LondonUnited KingdomSW7 2RL
- Reference number:
- GolEr
- Title:
- The Erno Goldfinger Papers
- Title (official language):
- The Erno Goldfinger Papers
- Creator/accumulator:
- Goldfinger, Erno
- Date(s):
- 1914/1988
- Language:
- English
- Extent:
- 522 boxes
- Scope and content:
- The Goldfinger archive provides one of the most comprehensive collections of the Manuscripts and Archives Collection, filling 522 archive boxes. It comprises business and personal records, including almost all of the job files which were created during Goldfinger's fifty years in practice, with only a few obvious gaps (such as papers for the third phase of Rowlett Street housing and some papers for the first phase of the Hille factory premises). The papers consist of letters, volumes, diaries, notes, sketches, press cuttings and pamphlets. They provide a great deal of information, not only on buildings and other works by Goldfinger, but also on MARS, CIAM and the IUA, Auguste Perret, wartime exhibitions, light research and the day to day running of an architect's office. The correspondence files include letters by numerous architects, painters and sculptors living all over the world, such as Serge Chermayeff, Max Ernst, Pierre Forestier, Berthold Lubetkin, Charlotte Perriand, Denys Lasdun, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy and Henry Moore.
- Administrative/biographical history:
- Goldfinger's career spanned six decades and included designs for interiors, flats, houses, shops and shopfronts, offices, factories, schools, evacuation and holiday camps, furniture, toys and household goods. He also worked on a number of exhibitions, including exhibition stands, gave numerous lectures, wrote articles and designed a "heliometer" as part of his research into the effects of light on buildings. He attracted a significant amount of publicity by spending some weeks living in the top floor flat of one of his own tower blocks, at Poplar, London, in order to gain first-hand experience of living in a high rise block and to discover what problems there might be for the tenants. He lived in the house that he designed for his family in Willow Road, London, from 1939 until his death in 1987, and it is now owned by the National Trust.Goldfinger was born in Hungary in 1902 into a Jewish family and grew up mainly in Transylvania, though the family also spent some time in Budapest and Poland. In 1919 they moved to Vienna and then to Switzerland. In 1923 Goldfinger entered the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux Arts in Paris, and the following year he became one of the first students of the Atelier Auguste Perret. He then attended the Ecole d'Urbanisme from 1927 to 1928. He set up in practice in France in 1924 and worked with Andre Sive until 1928/1929, when he began to practice alone. He was mostly involved in designing apartment interiors and furniture for clients in Paris, though he also designed, for example, a library in Alexandria, Egypt, and a monument in Algiers, Algeria, as well as his first complete building, a house at Le Touquet, France, in 1933.Goldfinger first visited England in 1926, when he undertook a commission for the Helena Rubinstein Beauty Salon in Grafton Street, London. He came to England permanently in 1934, after marrying Ursula Blackwell. Much of his earliest work in Britain consisted of interior design, particularly for shops, and also shopfronts and furniture. Many of his projects during the 1930's were unrealized. He worked for Paul and Marjorie Abbatt on a number of commissions, including a toy shop in Wimpole Street, London, toy designs and an exhibition, and also undertook furniture design for "Easiwork" furniture. In 1934 he designed a house in Broxted, Essex (in association with Gerald Flower). By 1937 he had commenced work on his own house, at Willow Road, Hampstead, which was one of a terrace of three houses. During the Second World War he became involved in designing exhibitions for the Army Bureau of Current Affairs, on such subjects as the National Health Service, the cinema and traffic problems. He also became involved with projects for evacuation camps and designed an air raid shelter for a school in Sussex. During this time he wrote a series of articles on the art of enclosing space, a theme which remained fundamental to his theories on architecture throughout his career.After the war, the commissions began to increase and during the late 1940's he worked on, amongst other things, alterations and additions to the Communist Party headquarters in King Street, London (in association with Colin Penn, with whom he collaborated between 1946 and 1947), newspaper offices and a printing press in Farringdon Road: London, a house in Warwickshire for Colonel Fletcher and warehouses and offices in Birmingham for Fletcher Hardware Ltd. In the 1950's he worked on two schools for the London County Council, designed a house for his mother, father and brother in Brussels and undertook commissions for several offices, flats, houses and interiors, such as the Hille Factory in Watford, offices for Carr & Co. in Birmingham, an office block in Albermarle Street, London, flats in Regents Park Road, London and Wallis House in Amersham, Buckinghamshire. In the late 1950's he won a competition for a major new development at the Elephant & Castle, London, and began work on Alexander Fleming House and the Odeon Cinema (the cinema was later demolished). In addition he secured two major commissions for the Greater London Council, namely Rowlett Street housing at Poplar, London, and Edenham Street housing in North Kensington, London, which were built in phases over several years. He also continued to design smaller private houses, such as Player House in Surrey and Motz House in Oxford.Goldfinger was involved with several architectural groups and associations, in particular the Congres Internationale d'Architecture Moderne (CIAM) of which he was the secretary of the French section while he lived in Paris, the Modern Architectural Research Group (MARS) and the Union Internationale d'Architecture (UIA). He was the English correspondent for the French publication L'Architecture d'Aujourd'hui from 1934 to 1974.
- Access points: locations:
- London
- Access points: persons/families:
- Goldfinger, Erno
- Subject terms:
- Architecture
- Correspondence
- Personal records
- Access, restrictions:
- Open
- Yerusha Network member:
- AIM25
- Reference number:
- GolEr
- Title:
- The Erno Goldfinger Papers
- Title (official language):
- The Erno Goldfinger Papers
- Creator/accumulator:
- Goldfinger, Erno
- Date(s):
- 1914/1988
- Language:
- English
- Extent:
- 522 boxes
- Scope and content:
- The Goldfinger archive provides one of the most comprehensive collections of the Manuscripts and Archives Collection, filling 522 archive boxes. It comprises business and personal records, including almost all of the job files which were created during Goldfinger's fifty years in practice, with only a few obvious gaps (such as papers for the third phase of Rowlett Street housing and some papers for the first phase of the Hille factory premises). The papers consist of letters, volumes, diaries, notes, sketches, press cuttings and pamphlets. They provide a great deal of information, not only on buildings and other works by Goldfinger, but also on MARS, CIAM and the IUA, Auguste Perret, wartime exhibitions, light research and the day to day running of an architect's office. The correspondence files include letters by numerous architects, painters and sculptors living all over the world, such as Serge Chermayeff, Max Ernst, Pierre Forestier, Berthold Lubetkin, Charlotte Perriand, Denys Lasdun, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy and Henry Moore.
- Administrative/biographical history:
- Goldfinger's career spanned six decades and included designs for interiors, flats, houses, shops and shopfronts, offices, factories, schools, evacuation and holiday camps, furniture, toys and household goods. He also worked on a number of exhibitions, including exhibition stands, gave numerous lectures, wrote articles and designed a "heliometer" as part of his research into the effects of light on buildings. He attracted a significant amount of publicity by spending some weeks living in the top floor flat of one of his own tower blocks, at Poplar, London, in order to gain first-hand experience of living in a high rise block and to discover what problems there might be for the tenants. He lived in the house that he designed for his family in Willow Road, London, from 1939 until his death in 1987, and it is now owned by the National Trust.Goldfinger was born in Hungary in 1902 into a Jewish family and grew up mainly in Transylvania, though the family also spent some time in Budapest and Poland. In 1919 they moved to Vienna and then to Switzerland. In 1923 Goldfinger entered the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux Arts in Paris, and the following year he became one of the first students of the Atelier Auguste Perret. He then attended the Ecole d'Urbanisme from 1927 to 1928. He set up in practice in France in 1924 and worked with Andre Sive until 1928/1929, when he began to practice alone. He was mostly involved in designing apartment interiors and furniture for clients in Paris, though he also designed, for example, a library in Alexandria, Egypt, and a monument in Algiers, Algeria, as well as his first complete building, a house at Le Touquet, France, in 1933.Goldfinger first visited England in 1926, when he undertook a commission for the Helena Rubinstein Beauty Salon in Grafton Street, London. He came to England permanently in 1934, after marrying Ursula Blackwell. Much of his earliest work in Britain consisted of interior design, particularly for shops, and also shopfronts and furniture. Many of his projects during the 1930's were unrealized. He worked for Paul and Marjorie Abbatt on a number of commissions, including a toy shop in Wimpole Street, London, toy designs and an exhibition, and also undertook furniture design for "Easiwork" furniture. In 1934 he designed a house in Broxted, Essex (in association with Gerald Flower). By 1937 he had commenced work on his own house, at Willow Road, Hampstead, which was one of a terrace of three houses. During the Second World War he became involved in designing exhibitions for the Army Bureau of Current Affairs, on such subjects as the National Health Service, the cinema and traffic problems. He also became involved with projects for evacuation camps and designed an air raid shelter for a school in Sussex. During this time he wrote a series of articles on the art of enclosing space, a theme which remained fundamental to his theories on architecture throughout his career.After the war, the commissions began to increase and during the late 1940's he worked on, amongst other things, alterations and additions to the Communist Party headquarters in King Street, London (in association with Colin Penn, with whom he collaborated between 1946 and 1947), newspaper offices and a printing press in Farringdon Road: London, a house in Warwickshire for Colonel Fletcher and warehouses and offices in Birmingham for Fletcher Hardware Ltd. In the 1950's he worked on two schools for the London County Council, designed a house for his mother, father and brother in Brussels and undertook commissions for several offices, flats, houses and interiors, such as the Hille Factory in Watford, offices for Carr & Co. in Birmingham, an office block in Albermarle Street, London, flats in Regents Park Road, London and Wallis House in Amersham, Buckinghamshire. In the late 1950's he won a competition for a major new development at the Elephant & Castle, London, and began work on Alexander Fleming House and the Odeon Cinema (the cinema was later demolished). In addition he secured two major commissions for the Greater London Council, namely Rowlett Street housing at Poplar, London, and Edenham Street housing in North Kensington, London, which were built in phases over several years. He also continued to design smaller private houses, such as Player House in Surrey and Motz House in Oxford.Goldfinger was involved with several architectural groups and associations, in particular the Congres Internationale d'Architecture Moderne (CIAM) of which he was the secretary of the French section while he lived in Paris, the Modern Architectural Research Group (MARS) and the Union Internationale d'Architecture (UIA). He was the English correspondent for the French publication L'Architecture d'Aujourd'hui from 1934 to 1974.
- Access points: locations:
- London
- Access points: persons/families:
- Goldfinger, Erno
- Subject terms:
- Architecture
- Correspondence
- Personal records
- Access, restrictions:
- Open
- Yerusha Network member:
- AIM25
