When University of Sussex was planned as Britain’s first red brick campus, the authorities decided to select a world famous architect.

In 1959, they appointed Sir Basil Spence, best known for Coventry Cathedral but also responsible for the master plan at Edinburgh University.

Spence is noted for his brutalist approach to architecture, best exemplified by his appalling Knightsbridge barracks in Hyde Park, which partly disfigure one of London’s finest open spaces.

But at Sussex he adopted a more sylvan approach as the new university was to be built in a green valley near historic Stanmer House on the outskirts of Brighton.

I find the buildings dull, badly dated and unworthy of their setting but this seems to be a minority view as they have subsequently attained Grade 1 status.

Certainly, Richard Morrice of English Heritage, who knows Brighton well, disagrees strongly in a new architectural guide to East Sussex which features the campus on the front of the dust jacket.

He says, “The campus has worn well, as have Spence’s buildings which are both romantic – bold gestures in concrete – and friendly – the use of brick and the relationship of the buildings to the established landscape setting.”

Morrice says there was an early decision not to erect any building that was taller than the many trees on or near the site. This was respected.

He adds that Spence was fortunate not to be as restricted by a lack of money as the six other new universities announced at the same time – York, East Anglia, Essex, Warwick, Kent and Lancaster – which meant building materials could be of a high quality.

Morrice particularly likes Falmer House, the first building to be completed on the site and one of social significance.

He quotes Asa Briggs, vice chancellor for many of the early years, as wanting radical rethinking “to represent for posterity the 20th century conception of a university”.

Spence designed the Meeting House, a non- denominational worship space, as circular to make it inclusive. He even designed most of the fittings himself.

The Gardner (now the Attenborough) Centre was never very successful as a theatre because it was too costly to run. But Morrice writes approvingly of the auditorium, which was planned with help from the radical young theatrical designer Sean Kenny.

Spence built for only 800 students at Sussex but had to extend his scheme quickly as numbers rose to 3,000 in the 1960s and have now exceeded 12,000.

Morrice says the theme of Spence was adhered to at first by architects planning additions. But later the effect was spoilt by intrusive car parks and buildings placed up the side of the valley.

He has hard words for the medical school, completed in 2003, as being “prominent, unsympathetic and unfortunately using concrete blocks”.

Spence died in 1976, aged 69, before seeing the many changes to his original vision.

  • The Buildings Of England: Sussex East by Nicholas Antram and Nikolaus Pevsner with contributions from Richard Morrice (Yate University Press, £35)