Have you ever considered the lives of the architects behind Birmingham's post-war regeneration?

The John Madin Design Practice was a catalyst for so much more than the design of individual buildings.

When Madin began practising in 1950, architects felt that town planning was as much their brief as the design of buildings.

Architect planner Lewis Jones, a partner in the Madin practice from 1963 and 1985, recalled the buzz of excitement when he joined Madin, with the breadth of the work from planning new towns to restoring listed buildings and monuments.

Whatever the difficulties, "with Madin something in the end got built and that for me was something great".

The practice grew rapidly from the late 1950s onwards.

Madin was very hands on, returning from big client meetings to sit down with other architects and colleagues to discuss the progress of current projects, playing with the plans and teasing out the design issues.

The period after the Second World War was the time of mass housing expansion schemes.

The slums were to be cleared away and new communities developed with access to community and leisure facilities.

Architect John Madin in front of Central Library
Architect John Madin in front of Central Library

Lewis remembers they made successful bids for a number of these schemes across the country.

For Edgbaston's Calthorpe Estate, Madin created a comprehensive masterplan.

Based on the success of this, the next major commission was for the expansion of Corby New Town and a much bigger project was also evolving, the master plan for Telford new town.

Lewis was heavily involved with the design and execution of the Telford plan.

As in the Calthorpe Estate plan, Madin wanted to develop a sense of community and preserve the existing heritage.

The principles underlying the design of Telford included the separation of cars and pedestrians.

For the first time, architects were beginning to address the issue of how people could live happily alongside the motorcar.

Distinct housing communities were established with density determined by the number of families required to support a primary school.

Ring roads were created around the developments and through roads were kept to a minimum.

Instead, paths and pedestrian access linked the area, helping to create a sense of belonging.

It must have worked because Telford now has a reputation as one of the happiest places to live in the West Midlands.

Pedestrianisation was integral to the concept of Birmingham's Central Library and Lewis revealed that West Bromwich town centre, designed by the Madin Practice, was the earliest example of the pedestrianisation of a main street.

The archaeological and historic heritage of an area was also important. Lewis spent time making sure that the archaeological and industrial history of Dawley was identified and recorded.

He recalls that it was Madin, with others, who took up the cause of preserving this industrial heritage and he drafted the original proposal for the Open Air Museum at Coalbrookdale, now a World Heritage Site.

This was just one of their many heritage projects which also included such diverse restorations as Soho House, the Great Western Arcade and the Chamberlain Memorial Fountain.

I asked Lewis if he agreed that a legacy of John Madin's work was the careful use of landscape, trees and existing heritage.

He felt this was most certainly the case in Telford and in the care he took on the Calthorpe Estate.

The use of mixed-density housing was Madin's brainchild and helped to maintain the green spaces of Edgbaston.

Lewis remembers working in the purpose-built offices at 123 Hagley Road with some affection and is horrified and perplexed at the prospect of their imminent demolition, seeing no reason why they could not have been repurposed as apartments.

He reeled off the list of prestigious awards the practice received, including for 123 Hagley Road.

The Post & Mail tower under construction
The Post & Mail tower under construction

The commercial area along the Hagley Road, said Lewis, was another of Madin's achievements.

Originally designed as staggered 16-storey interspersed with four storey blocks, the plans were changed to accommodate the listed Georgian buildings.

Lewis identified Metropolitan House (now Number 1 Hagley Road) as particularly good with its unique design set around a cruciform plan.

He also singled out Neville House as worthy of merit. Of the buildings left standing, he felt both should be listed, as should the post-modern building at the far end of Great Western Arcade, in Colmore Row.

For Lewis, John Madin should be remembered for his early domestic work and office buildings which were cutting-edge.

We talked about the Birmingham Post & Mail building, sadly destroyed, and Lewis showed me a letter from Michael Holt, a partner in the practice, sent to the Twentieth Century Society in September 1997 that stated that the Birmingham Post & Mail was the first provincial building to employ the office tower/low level podium design.

Talking to Lewis, I was struck by how dynamic and prolific the output from Madin's practice was.

Regarded as a provincial architect, John Madin was producing work worthy of the best London architectural practices.

His reputation for the destruction of Birmingham's Victorian heritage is ill-founded - in fact, his vision was for saving and enhancing the best and most worthy of our heritage and environment.

Isn't it time that Birmingham copied his principles and started to appreciate and protect what remains of his legacy?

The boom of the 1960s brought Birmingham architects to the fore.

Mary Keating represents Brutiful Birmingham which campaigns for the preservation of the city's best late 20th century buildings