THE OTHER GOLDFINGER

Ernő Goldfinger (or, as he would be referred to in Hungary, the land of his birth, Goldfinger Ernő) was an architect and furniture designer who emigrated to the United Kingdom and resided there until his death in 1987 at age 85. He was a Modernist who did much of his work in the "Brutalist" style, which often featured monolithic massive concrete structures where the wood grain of the casting forms is clearly visible and where features which are normally concealed, such as water tanks, are out in the open.  An elaborate example is Goldfinger's Trellick Tower in North Kensington pictured below. Or, simply envision many high-capacity college dormitories or large government buildings constructed in the 1960s where function and costs overwhelmed any attempt at aesthetics.

"Brutalism" was an appropriate description for Goldfinger. He was a Marxist, had a vile temper, had no sense of humor, and would fire assistants if they were jocular. He was the perfect person to replace numerous bombed-out quaint and individualistic houses in post-war Britain with oppressive concrete high-rises.

There is actually a connection between Ernő Goldfinger and Auric Goldfinger, the infamous James Bond villain played on film by Gert Fröbe. Ian Fleming, the original author of the Bond novels, was not particularly fond of Ernő Goldfinger after Ernő had built one of his creations in pre-war Britain at the cost of demolishing a row of bucolic cottages. Fleming's disdain grew after talking with a friend of Ernő's  wife over a round of golf, and he decided to name the villain in his next book "Goldfinger." Ernő took umbrage at this tribute when Goldfinger was being published in 1959, and he consulted with his lawyers about suing. The matter was eventually resolved without litigation by Fleming's publisher paying Ernő's legal fees, providing him with six free copies of the book, and agreeing to affirm publically that the character was fictitious. Fleming was outraged over the incident and its resolution and tried to convince his publisher to rename the character "Goldprick," but he could not prevail.

Photo by stevecadman [CC BY-SA 2.0
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)],
 via Wikimedia Commons