Colin Stansfield Smith
1932-2013
News: British architect Colin Stansfield Smith, a pioneer of UK school design, has died at the age of 80.
Stansfield Smith was head of the Hampshire County Architects Department from 1973 to 1992. Under his lead, the department developed a radical approach to designing primary and secondary schools that was shaped by use and environment rather than architectural style.
Well-known projects include Newlands Primary School in Yateley, Queen’s Inclosure Primary School in Waterlooville and Whitehill School in Bordon.
The architect was awarded a CBE in 1988, picked up the RIBA Gold Medal in 1991 and was knighted in 1993.
After leaving Hampshire in the hands of colleague Bob Wallbridge, Stansfield Smith became an architecture professor at the Portsmouth University School of Architecture, where he designed a new faculty building. He also continued to work on school commissions privately, including Woodlea Primary School in Bordon.
He died on 18 June, following a stroke two weeks earlier.
Read more about school design in the UK »
Portrait courtesy of RIBA Library Photographs Collection.
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