My father, the architect Alan Goodman, who has died aged 93, was commissioned in 1963 to produce a development plan and the first campus buildings for the new University of Warwick, which opened two years later. For 10 years this dominated his life as he designed a lecture hall (complete with external spiral staircase – a tribute to Kenilworth castle), the students’ union, a library and admin block, and student residences.
Later, he was working on buildings for Loughborough University when the Thatcher government was elected and made cuts to public sector building works, which brought his career to a halt.
Alan was born in Sandiacre in Derbyshire, the much loved only child of Eddy Goodman, who worked in the local Stanton ironworks, and Alice (nee Woodhouse), a St John’s Ambulance volunteer. Alan won a scholarship to Long Eaton grammar school, where his acute headteacher recognised that his unusual talents in both mathematics and drawing would suit a career in architecture.
Before he could complete his studies at Nottingham School of Art, he was called up in 1945 and was sent to India. The first few months were spent in the beautiful hill station of Ootacamund, where a good deal of time was passed playing cricket. In late 1946, his troop was sent up to the North West frontier and stationed at Quetta, where their task was to quell riots in the run up to partition. On leaving India, they were sent to Palestine. Here the troops’ job was to prevent Jewish refugee ships from landing at Haifa and send them back to Cyprus.
Notwithstanding being witness to these dramatic events, Alan’s main interest was the spectacular geography and architecture he saw. Back in the UK he resumed his studies and in 1949 took a holiday to Denmark, where he met Hanne Villumsen. It was love at first sight for both of them.
They married in 1951 and not long afterwards Alan joined Nottinghamshire county council architects’ department. It was an exceptionally creative and productive period. He won an RIBA prize for his design for Tuxford secondary school, and in 1960 he and Hanne spent a happy summer on Lake Como in Italy as he oversaw the building of a school which won the Milan Triennial gold prize.
In the early 1960s Alan set up in private practice and soon afterwards received the commission for Warwick University. Alan and Hanne settled in Derbyshire, where they lived for 30 years and brought up two daughters, Victoria and me.
In 1992 they moved to the Breton fishing port of Camaret-sur-Mer, where they had a new lease of life. Alan developed his skills as a watercolourist and making new friends. Ill health brought them back to the UK in 2012 for a final chapter in Barnard Castle, County Durham, where Alan made a lovely garden on the banks of the river Tees.
Hanne died in 2016. Alan is survived by Victoria and me, and by four grandchildren, Nicholas, Rebecca, Jacob and Isaac.
