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Nigel Coates (architect)

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Nigel Coates (2 March 1949 -) is an English architect, author, and prolific designer of interiors, exhibitions, products, and lighting. He grew up in the town of Malvern, Worcestershire and was educated at Hanley Castle Grammar School before studying at the University of Nottingham (1968–71) and the Architectural Association (1972-4). He formed Branson Coates Architecture with Doug Branson in 1985-2006. He established his own studio of architecture and design in 2006. As Professor Emeritus he continues to engage with the London School of Architecture and Ravensbourne University.

Architectural Narrative

He first attracted the attention of the international architecture world in 1984 with the publication of NATO (Narrative Architecture Today) magazine,[1] which featured his exuberant drawing style and his narrative ideas about architecture. The first built commissions came from Japan, followed by many projects in the UK. His work has been compared with that of Tom Dixon and Ron Arad.[2]

Built Work

His built projects include Caffè Bongo (1986), Noah’s Ark (1988), the Wall (1990) and the Art Silo (1992), all in Japan, and in Britain, the Geffrye Museum extension, Oyster House (both 1998), and the National Centre for Popular Music (now the Sheffield Hallam Hubs music venue) in Sheffield (1999).[3] As designer and curator of Powerhouse::uk (1998), an inflatable structure improbably located on Horse Guards, he is associated with the flowering of the arts in late nineties Britain dubbed by Vanity Fair as Cool Britannia.

Interiors and Exhibitions

He has also been responsible for many well known, narrative-based, interior and exhibition designs in the UK and Europe, including shops for fashion designer Katharine Hamnett, the Living Bridges exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts (1996), the British Pavilion at Expo '98 in Lisbon, the Body Zone at London's Millennium Dome, the Jigsaw flagship store on Knightsbridge, Ecstacity in the British Pavilion at the 2000 Venice Architecture Biennale, Mixtacity at Tate Modern in 2007, his Hypnerotosphere installation at the 2008 Venice Architecture Biennale (a collaboration with film maker John Maybury) and the 2009 refurbishment of Middle and Over Wallop restaurants at Glyndebourne Opera House. Recent work includes the installation 'Picaresque', part of the 2012 exhibition Kama: Sesso e Design at the Triennale di Milano.

Architect as Designer

Coates’ best known product designs include furniture for Fratelli Boffi, Gebrüder Thonet Vienna, Poltronova, Hitch Mylius and Varaschin, glass and tableware for Alessi, Salviati, Fornasetti, Dartington Crystal and Nude Glass, and lighting for AV Mazzega and Slamp for whom he was art director from 2007 to 2015. For limited edition pieces he is represented by the Dutch gallery Priveekollektie. Items of his work are displayed in museums including the Victoria & Albert Museum and FRAC[disambiguation needed] including drawings of noteworthy projects such as the House for Derek Jarman and the Tokyo Wall.[4]

Academic Career

Coates has been a dedicated teacher of architecture with many of his former students achieving prominence in the profession including Amanda Levete, Robert Mull, Peter Thomas, Rosie Head, Will Hunter, Oliver Wainwright and Finn Williams. He was Unit Master at the Architectural Association from 1978 to 1988. And from 1995 to 2011 he was Professor and Head of the Department of Architecture at the Royal College of Art and in 2011 was made Emeritus Professor. In 2012 Nigel Coates was awarded the RIBA Annie Spink Award in recognition of an outstanding contribution to architectural education. He is Chair of the Academic Court at the newly formed London School of Architecture and director of Nigel Coates studio and showroom, based in South Kensington.

Rick Poynor, Nigel Coates: The City in Motion, Fourth Estate, 1989

Metropolis, Linda Brown and Sudjic, ICA 1988

Nigel Coates, Ecstacity, Architectural Association, 1992

Jonathan Glancey, Body Buildings and City Scapes, Thames & Hudson, 1999

Nigel Coates, Guide to Ecstacity, Laurence King, 2003

Nigel Coates, Collidoscope, Laurence King 2004

Alessandra Orlandi, Interview with Nigel Coates, The Plan 006, 2004

Jenny Dalton, Coates of many Colours, How To Spend It, Financial Times, April 2009

Aaron Betsky, Out There: Architecture Beyond Buildings, La Biennale di Venezia, 2008

Guido Incerti, Interview with Nigel Coates, Klat magazine 05, Spring 2011

Nigel Coates, Narrative Architecture, Wiley, 2012

Marjanović and Howard, Drawing Ambience, RISD 2015

References

  1. ^ FX Magazine. Retrieved 13 October 2009
  2. ^ http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/visual_arts/architecture_and_design/article3743990.ece
  3. ^ http://www.architonic.com/aiabt/nigel-coates/5205305
  4. ^ http://www.londondesignfestival.com/profiles/nigel-coates
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