In his years as a successful architect John Harris never forgot his harrowing experiences, graphically and carefully recorded in his memories in Oliver Lindsay’s The Battle for Hong Kong (2005), nor the importance of his wartime friendships, nor indeed the sheer luck of survival against all odds. That book recalls how the Chiefs of Staff, years before, had decided that Hong Kong, although a vulnerable and ill-equipped outpost, should be defended as long as possible. Field Marshal Lord Bramall says in the foreword to the book that the defence was heroic and succeeded in holding up an overwhelming and ferocious attack by the Japanese for nearly three weeks.

Harris describes in convincing detail the appalling conditions of the camp, the solidarity, the heroism, the humour, but above all the secret message chain of military intelligence of which he was the last survivor. Five brother officers were executed by their captors and were posthumous winners of the George Cross. Godfrey Bird, a man whose bravery under torture saved Harris’s life, is buried at West Wittering Church, Sussex. Harris chose to be buried next to him.

John Harris was born at Hersham, Surrey, in 1919. His father Alfred Harris served with gallantry in the First World War, and was awarded the Distinguished Service Order and mentioned in dispatches in 1916 for his part in the first tank battle at Combles. Subsequently Alfred Harris became senior partner of Widnell and Trollope, an international firm of quantity surveyors.

At Harrow, John Harris enjoyed the art classes and sketching excursions of Maurice Clark, who also helped to inspire him to become an architect. Initial studies at the Architectural Association were curtailed in 1939, when he was called up as a Territorial to join the Royal Engineers. He was soon sent to Hong Kong to reinforce the small garrison.

Once the war in the Pacific ended he returned to his studies at the Architectural Association, where he met his wife-to-be, Jill Rowe, and together they formed a most successful partnership. After a project in Kuwait, their first major achievement was to win the RIBA international competition for the design and supervision of the new State Hospital, Doha, Qatar, in 1952. The assessor chose the Harris design particularly for its intelligent approach to climate and environmental concerns. This was advanced thinking long before it became a global necessity.

From this formative project, Harris developed one of the first truly global architectural practices, a rarity then but now a necessity for any architectural firm seeking recognition. The Harris brand of Modernism was not only advanced, it was humane and in touch with financial and social needs.

At a time when other cities, both modern and ancient, had captured the imagination of his compatriots, Harris was working on plans elsewhere. There are fine examples of 20th-century urban planning: Oscar Niemeyer’s plan for Brasilia, Le Corbusier’s for Chandigarh, H. P. Berlage’s for Amsterdam South.

In 1960 Harris drew the first master plan for Dubai, then a modest pearling and trading town. Dubai is probably the only city to have been designed by an architect which has become a global phenomenon.

Harris always demurred about claims of genius or destiny. It could be said that in return, this self-tailored modesty enabled his most ambitious plans to succeed. During modern Dubai’s founding, Harris’s work went largely unnoticed by British and European press and by fellow architects and planners. Harris’s seemingly anonymous work paralleled the quiet but steady early progress of Dubai rising from the open desert.

Introduced to Dubai’s ruler, Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum, in 1959 by the British Political Agent then, Sir Donald Hawley (obituary, Feb 15), Harris rapidly won the ruler’s trust and became the state’s expert adviser on the new master plan. Harris developed a means of working that wedded Sheikh Rashid’s ambitions with an architecture both respected and respectful.

Harris’s tasks in 1960 were at once daunting and simple. Dubai had no paved roads, no utility networks or modern ports of supply. Water was only available from cans brought into town by donkeys. Travelling to Dubai from London took several days in unreliable piston-engine planes with overnight stops. Communication was also difficult. There were few telephones and cables were sent by radio. It was a far cry from today’s instant communications and seven-hour flights on almost every hour.

The Harris town plan addressed the fundamentals: a map, a road system and directions for growth. This plan would guide Dubai’s modest early development until the discovery of oil in 1966. It demonstrates why Sheikh Rashid chose to hire a young and largely unknown architect instead of one of the more experienced British town planners. Harris’s plan accepted the logic and economies of the existing settlement and proposed a road system that would weave the old town into Dubai’s future growth.