Henry Swain

Henry Thornhill Swain, architect: born Bideford, Devon 14 February 1924; Deputy County Architect, Nottinghamshire County Council 1958-1964, County Architect 1964-1968; Vice-President, RIBA 1966-67; CBE 1971; married 1950 Annie Harthorn (two daughters; marriage dissolved), 1976 Judy Torrington (one daughter; marriage dissolved); died Nottingham 7 January 2002.

Henry Swain was a key member of that generation of architects who made the British post-war school-building programme a success. These architects first studied the needs of children and teachers, and then found ways of applying the benefits of mass-produce construction to individual school buildings. It was a story of collaborative endeavour, high ideals of public service, and a vision of a social architecture available to everyone.

Swain was born in Bideford in Devon in 1924, the son of a prominent builder's merchant. Educated at Bryanston School, in Dorset, he left with a love of poetry, a facility for sketching people and places, competence in writing, and considerable mathematical and scientific knowledge, all ideal for a career in architecture.

His training at the Architectural Association School of Architecture was interrupted by the Second World War. He spent three years in the Royal Navy as a Leading Seaman steersman in the destroyer Swift and the corvette Lancaster Castle. His experience of Arctic convoys to Murmansk in midwinter gave him a great admiration for the Russian people.

After completing his studies at the AA, he joined the new team at Hertfordshire County Council working on a major programme of primary-school building, using innovative designs and a limited range of prefabricated components. A new school left the production line every three weeks. Swain was swept up in the heady atmosphere.

His first primary school was Oxhey No 9, the first of the more compact schools built in anticipation of government-imposed cost limits. Here in Hertfordshire he absorbed the concepts of working in a multi-professional team that included surveyors, engineers, manufacturers and education staff; he learnt to apply the results of studies from the nearby Building Research Station at Garston, as well as the discipline of cost control, and the attention that should be given to all aspects of design: landscape, lighting, colour, furniture and fittings.

In 1955 Swain moved to Nottinghamshire to join Donald Gibson, recently appointed County Architect there following his redevelopment of Coventry city. In Nottinghamshire, a new team was being formed to tackle the problems of building a large number of schools on sites subject to mining subsidence. Swain was appointed group leader for technical development and immediately considered how the Hertfordshire experience could be applied on these unstable sites.

At that time conventional engineering practice called for a massive reinforced concrete waffle grid which would resist the vertical displacement of the building. Schools built in this manner were already beginning to crack up under their own weight.

The solution lay in exactly the opposite direction. Light, flexibly jointed buildings, with smooth floor slabs laid on sand would offer no resistance to the rolling wave of subsidence as it passed underneath. Like a surfboard after the wave has passed the building would return to the horizontal. A prefabricated system of building that accommodated these movements was then designed in collaboration with progressive manufacturers.

The appearance of the completed buildings depended much on the ability of the job architect. However it was a sine qua non that a reasonable solution on time and to budget was better than perfection too late and overspent. But Nottinghamshire Clasp buildings, as the system was called, did win RIBA awards, and was adopted in other mining areas of Britain and exported to countries prone to earthquakes. Overseas recognition came with the winning of the Gold Medal at the Milan Triennale in 1960.

With the technical problems under control, Swain, who became County Architect in 1964, turned his attention to the requirements of secondary schools. All new comprehensive schools were designed to share their spaces with other community users, especially those areas designed for sport. In response to pleas from David Barnes, the county Physical Education Adviser, for more adult recreational facilities for schoolchildren, the concept of the "Sports Hall" was developed. These facilities were less readily available to the public if the schools were sited on the edge of the towns. In a move of exceptional boldness, Swain proposed building the new community school at Sutton-in-Ashfield right in the centre of the town. It incorporated an ice rink and a theatre among the many spaces which were jointly used.

Swain always preferred going north rather than south for his holidays; Iceland, Greenland and the Faroes were his destinations. On retirement in 1988 he set off on a new venture, to sail his yacht with a mixed crew to the north of Russia. Vividly described in his book Return to Murmansk (1996), he laid to rest the ghosts of his wartime experiences. He received a hero's welcome from the mayor and citizens of that Arctic city, as the first veteran, and the first British skipper, to sail a yacht into the port.

Henry Swain was a leader in the Shackleton mould. He selected his staff carefully and imbued them with common objectives: seven went on to become County Architects. He boosted morale, delegating responsibility to young architects, and always practised a belief in the inclusive team. Above all he had a clear vision of the role of the public architect, and was committed to his county and his colleagues.

Alan Meikle