Stanley Amis, who died at the age of 97, was the last surviving member of a generation of architects who returned from WWII duty to help build the country's infrastructure and aesthetic character. Theirs was a social architecture, with a strong focus on the people who used their structures.

Amis's audience comprised Cambridge grads and submariners, as well as convicts and retirees, theatergoers and council residents.

He got his start working for the London County Council (LCC) on the Alton West estate in Roehampton, which was a translation of Le Corbusier's urbanism ideas into an English parkland environment. He established an inseparable partnership at the LCC with Bill Howell, John Killick, and John Partridge.

Howell Killick Partridge & Amis (HKPA), their successor firm, infused enthusiasm and rigor into British architecture, relying on architectural history and aesthetic parallels with toys, tents, aeroplanes, and tortoise shells.

Amis was the "organization man" among the partners, according to Partridge. He was skilled at managing big, complicated projects and had complete control over the practice's scheduling and budgets. It would be a mistake, though, to dismiss his design skills.

The finest buildings by Amis show a sophisticated approach to lighting and materials, as well as a smart use of site and money and a clear approach to construction.

Precast concrete, his preferred material, was treated as a collection of parts: how the pieces fit together, how they land, and how they meet the sky. It was a practical approach; architect Clare Wright, who began her career at HKPA, commented on how the partners "revelled in the everydayness of architecture" — the polar opposite of today's pompous, self-centered design culture.

Early in his career, the mathematically inclined Amis grew intrigued with geometry and architectural proportion, becoming one of the first British architects to convert the Modulor, Le Corbusier's scale of proportions that he employed while building Alton West, into feet and inches.

The Modulor was re-enacted in 80-90 South Hill Park in Hampstead (1954-56), six terraced homes designed by Amis in collaboration with Bill and Gillian Howell for themselves and four friends. It became a popular model, and Neave Brown used it to design his homes on Winscombe Street in Dartmouth Park.

HKPA established a name for itself in the rapidly growing area of educational structures. Acland Burghley (1963-77), a comprehensive school for their previous employer, the LCC, was their first commission.

Amis created visual appeal with modelled concrete cladding and a top-lit assembly hall while working under strict budget constraints. His knowledge of precast concrete was put to good use at Reading University's department of urban and regional studies in 1970-72, which featured a riot of ochre-hued posts and double beams.

Today, South Hill Park, Acland Burghley, and the Reading Faculty are all designated as historic sites.

Amis' capacity to conceive at both the big and small sizes came in useful at the Devonport naval station, HKPA's largest project, where he supervised the design of a fleet maintenance base and a nuclear submarine repair complex over a 15-year period.

Simultaneously, he began renovating Lower Trevollard, a run-down farmhouse in rural Cornwall, into a family home and branch office. The most notable portion – now badly changed – was the South House, where Amis constructed an open-plan interior with rubble walls, slate flags, exposed king post trusses, and his own pine furnishings beneath a roof of recycled Delabole slate.

Stanley Amis was born in Virginia Water, Surrey, to Frederick and Belinda Amis, who worked for the International Western Electric Company as electrical engineers (nee Nash). He went to Merchant Taylors' School in London, then to the Architectural Association (AA) School of Architecture, where Frederick Gibberd was principal at the time.

In 1946, he rejoined the AA after serving with the Fleet Air Arm and the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve. It was a diverse group of returning soldiers and school dropouts, with half of them being female. He met his future practice colleagues Killick and Bill Howell there, and in 1950, he joined the LCC's architect's department alongside them.

Amis rejoined Howell, Killick, and Partridge in 1961 after a spell with Easton and Robertson as the site architect for the Shell Centre on London's South Bank. He got his private pilot's license after retiring from HKPA in 1989 and flew single-engine planes into his 80s.

In 1946, Amis married Isabel Over, and the couple produced two sons, Mark and Philip. After Isabel's death, Amis married Margaret Wolfit, an actress, in 1965, and they had a daughter, Lucy. The union was subsequently annulled.

Amis is survived by Lucy and Philip, as well as his third wife, Thelma Sorensen, whom he married in 2005. He was predeceased by Mark.

Thanks to Geraint Franklin at The Guardian whose reporting provided the original basis for this story.