Tecton [also known as Tecton Group and TECTON Architects] was an architectural partnership formed in London, England in 1932 by the émigré architect Berthold Lubetkin (1901-1990) and a group of recent graduates of the Architectural Association School: Godfrey Samuel (1904-1982), Valentine (Val) Harding (1905-1940), Michael Dugdale (1906-1973), Anthony Merlott Chitty (1907-1976), Francis Skinner (1908-1998.) and Lindsay Drake (1909-1980). In 1935 Samuel and Harding left the partnership to form their own firm, and Chitty and Dugdale also left.
In 1935 Lubetkin and Tecton, in partnership with the civil engineer, Ove Arup, won a competition to design working-class residential flats in reinforced concrete organised by the Cement Marketing Company Limited.
Between 1937-39, Tecton developed an Air Raid Shelter Plan for Finsbury which was published as 'Planned A.R.P. Based on the investigation of structural protection against air attack in the Metropolitan Borough of Finsbury' by TECTON Architects (London: The Architectural Press, 1939). Tecton was dissolved in 1947 and the following year Lubetkin joined Francis Skinner and Douglas Bailey in a new partnership - Skinner, Bailey & Lubetkin.
Architectural projects by Tecton included several buildings for London Zoo, including the Gorilla House, the Penguin Pool, a refreshment bar and the Elephant House (1932-37), two houses at Whipsnade Zoo in Bedfordshire (1933-36), High Point I and II Flats in Highgate, London (1933-35, 1936-38), buildings for Dudley Zoo in Dudley, Worcestershire (1936-37), Finsbury Health Centre in Finsbury, London (1938) and the Spa Green housing estate in Finsbury, London (mid-1940s).
Allan, John. Berthold Lubetkin: architecture and the tradition of progress. London: RIBA Publications, 1992
Contemporary architects. Edited by Ann Lee Morgan and Colin Naylor. Chicago, Illinois: St. James Press, 2nd edition 1987 [Entry on Berthold Lubetkin]
Coe, Peter and Reading, Malcolm. Lubetkin and Tecton: architecture and social commitment: a critical study. London: Arts Council of Great Britain; Bristol: University of Bristol, 1981
Jordon, Robert Furneaux. 'Lubetkin'. Architectural Review vol. 118, July 1955 pp. 36-44 [Discusses the major projects by Berthold Lubetkin and Tecton]
Lambert, Sam. 'Historic pioneers: architects and clients'. Architects' Journal vol. vo. 151, 11 March 1970 pp. 594-597 [Regent's Park Zoo in London designed by Lubetkin and Tecton is discussed]
Lewittes, Deborah. Berthold Lubetkin's Highpoint II and the Jewish contribution to modern English architecture. Abingdon, Oxfordshire; New York, NY: Routledge, 2018
Mills, Edward David. The New Architecture in Britain 1946-1953. London: The Standard Catalogue Co. Ltd., 1953 [Discusses a multi-storey flats in Finsbury designerd by Tecton pp. 63-74]
Nelson, George. 'Architects of Europe today, 12: Tecton'. Pencil Points vol. 17, October 1936 pp. 528-540 [Focuses on three projects by Lubetkin and Tecton - Highgate Flats in London, Regent's Park Zoo, and Whipsnade Zoo]
Reading, Malcolm and Coe, Peter. Lubetkin and Tecton. London: Triangle Architectural Publishing, 1992
Service, Alastair. The Architects of London and their buildings from 1066 to the present. London: The Architectural Press, 1979
Tecton. Planned A.R.P.: based on the investigation of structural protection against an attack in the Metropolitan Borough of Finsbury. London : Architectural Press, 1939
Working-Class Residential Flats in Reinforced Concrete : report on a competition for designs of blocks of working-class residential flats in reinforced concrete : organised by the Cement Marketing Company Limited. Introduction by P. Morton Shand.