The daughter of the architect who designed London Zoo’s penguin enclosure says it may be time to “blow it to smithereens” after it fell into disuse because it gave the birds sore feet.
Zoo workers withdrew the birds from Berthold Lubetkin’s 1934 Penguin Pool after it was claimed the concrete was causing them a bacterial infection known as “bumblefoot”.
His daughter Sasha said it was “terribly sad” to see her father’s design sitting unused in the zoo.
“It was designed as a showcase and playground of captive penguins and I can’t see that it would be suited to anything else,” she told the Camden New Journal.
“Perhaps it’s time to blow it to smithereens.”
The birds now live in a bigger enclosure, known as Penguin Beach, which opened in 2011.
Mr Lubetkin also designed the Highpoint flats in Highgate and the Finsbury Health Centre.
A zoo spokeswoman said: “The penguins haven’t lived in the Grade I listed Lubetkin Penguin Pool since 2004 — we have no current plans to do anything with the building.
“The penguins now live on Penguin Beach, Europe’s largest penguin pool, which has a rocky, sandy beach, nesting areas and a 1,200sqm pool holding 450,000 litres of water — alongside a penguin nursery where chicks can learn how to swim.”
