My mother Margaret Maxwell, who has died aged 81, was a craftsman architect and landscape architect who managed to combine her interest in gardens with a passion for historic buildings and conservation. Her father died at the age of only 31, when his daughter was just eight, followed by her mother, when Margaret was 14. This double loss, compounded by the arbitrary and immediate separation from her sister (they were sent to different aunts) sealed these tragic events deep within her.
Working as a cartographer for the Ministry of Town and Country Planning, Margaret met the young Hugh Casson and, inspired by his world, studied architecture at night school at the Regent Street Polytechnic, winning a scholarship to the school of architecture at Liverpool University. During a stint in the office of Sir William Holford, she confessed that she did not have enough money to complete the course. Returning from lunch, she found the entire fee sitting on her drawing board, collected in the hour by her friends. As one of the top draftsman of her third year, she was chosen by James Stirling to draw up his final-year dissertation, using map pens on water-colour paper. One of Jim's best friends was the architect Bob Maxwell, whom she married in 1951.
During Margaret's early professional career they worked together, and she then joined architects Bridgwater and Shepheard. Much of the time she worked directly with Sir Peter Shepheard, in whom she found a professional and artistic soulmate. With him she created a sense of place and character within the otherwise bleak early landscapes of Whipsnade Zoo, Warwick University, Newcastle airport and Milton Keynes.
With Peter's patronage, Margaret set up her own practice in London in 1966. Her commissions covered landscape design, including teaching at the Royal College of Art with her old friend (now Sir) Hugh Casson, and the conservation and adaptation of historic buildings. Among the latter was her scheme for the Giant Steps at Greenwich and the Michael Sobell pavilion for apes at London Zoo. For this she won a Civic Trust award in 1973.
Her work on historic buildings, which expanded when she moved to Pewsey, Wiltshire, ranged from the restoration of listed buildings to a new community centre in formerly derelict buildings at Calne. There she met Prince Charles, who eventually opened the development.
Margaret sang in the Hallé choir, and produced in 1969 the first English stage performance of Mozart's sings- piel Zaide, with Norma Burrows in the title role. She sang with the Alexandra choir, and attended summer music camps. At one of these, she met her second husband, the violinist Bernard Lewis, whom she married in 1974.
Margaret had a profound influence on aspiring and active members of her profession. With this she balanced her maternal instincts, her enjoyment of good company, particularly her architectural friends, who knew of her cordon bleu qualifications, and her sense of goodness. She was awarded the King of Prussia Gold Medal, and an MBE in 1996.
She is survived by myself, my two sisters and both her husbands.
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