Selwyn Goldsmith

Selwyn Goldsmith, who died on April 3 aged 78, was an architect handicapped by polio and led his profession in the provision of access for the disabled; later he turned his sights on all forms of discrimination in design, notably the agonies faced by women needing the lavatory in public buildings. 

Selwyn Goldsmith

Before Goldsmith produced Designing for the Disabled in 1963, architects had no guidance on access for disabled people, who were therefore excluded from many buildings and facilities. The book was soon hailed as indispensable by The Architects' Journal and used in the teaching and training of not just architects, but also occupational therapists and local authority planners.

He was born at Newark, Nottinghamshire, on December 11 1932 to Philip and Nelly Goldsmith. His father was a GP, and Selwyn attended Abbotsholme School and Trinity Hall, Cambridge, where he read Architecture. He completed his qualification at the Bartlett School, University College London, in 1956. But in the same year he was struck by the polio virus, which left him effectively hemiplegic, paralysed down one side of his body.

He soon recognised that architectural design was not his forte, and was considering his career when he met Bill Allen and Duncan Guthrie, who had established the Polio Research Fund. Together with Gordon Ricketts, Secretary of the Royal Institute of British Architects, they mooted the idea of a comprehensive guidance manual on architectural planning for disabled access to buildings. This was a new concept in Britain, and Goldsmith was selected to write it.

In 1967 he produced an important second edition, having selected Norwich as a representative city in which to conduct his research. With the co-operation of Norwich Council and numerous local medical and care workers, he canvassed the local population to base his findings on their problems and experiences. Armed with a list of wheelchair-users in the city, he visited and interviewed 284 of them.

A direct result of these discussions was the ramped kerb, devised by Goldsmith, 15 of which were arranged at intersections round the city. The feature has gone on to become standard around the world. He also drafted a guidebook for disabled people in Norwich – a practice since developed in many other places. At the same time he was heavily involved in drafting the British Standards Institution code of practice which covered access for the disabled to public buildings.

But he was not a political campaigner for "disabled rights", feeling that this would serve only to deepen perceived divisions between the disabled and the rest of the population. When he arrived in Norwich, for example, he found that the council had a shortfall in its quota of disabled employees. The council was delighted to rectify this situation and invited Goldsmith to fill a spot in the quota – only to be met with a refusal of characteristic vigour, informed by pungent objections to tokenism. This deep-rooted antipathy to the politicisation of disability was to last all his life.
In 1972 he joined the Department of the Environment, where he produced the reports "Wheelchair Housing" and "Mobility Housing", which became widely accepted as standards for public sector housing.
He lectured widely abroad, where Designing for the Disabled also proved highly influential. He was always completely absorbed in his subject, and on one occasion during a lecture in New Zealand, sensed a loss of interest in his audience. Dismissing it, however, he carried on, only to be informed afterwards that an earthquake had struck midway through his talk – he had failed to notice the tremors.
In the late 1980s Goldsmith turned his campaigning mind to the vexed question of women's lavatories. He wondered why women seemed always to be queuing – in shops, museums, theatres or public buildings – and decided that action was needed. Recently remarried, he conscripted his new wife to assist his research into the statistics. Together they spent innumerable weekends assessing comparative provision of lavatories for men and women at shops and institutions from the National Theatre to Harrods.
Their work revealed a yawning disparity in male and female provision (for example the NT had 83 urinals and WCs for men, compared with 36 lavatories for women). The situation remains imperfect, but what improvement there has been owes much to Goldsmith's tenacity.
In 1992 Goldsmith retired from the DoE and set about researching and writing Designing for the Disabled – the New Paradigm, which reflected his broader concern with the discrimination in design than that solely affecting disabled people. Accordingly the book's remit extended to mothers with pushchairs; ambulant disabled people; children; as well as wheelchair users. He concluded that having "different" or "extreme" needs is not unusual, but in fact "normal". His last book, Universal Design (2000), enlarged on this theme.
Selwyn Goldsmith was meticulous in his research and uncompromising in his views. Tactlessness brought him unpopularity in some government circles, but integrity and charm won him great respect even from those with whom he battled. In 1982 he received the Harding Award for his services to disabled people.
Outside work he had a great interest in art and art history, particularly the Renaissance. His other passion, shared with his twin brother, was for trains and railways.
Selwyn Goldsmith was twice married. He is survived by his wife, Becky, and two sons.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/technology-obituaries/8435991/Selwyn-Goldsmith.html