Lives in Architecture: Nigel Coates

Irreverent
and iconoclastic, Nigel Coates has been agitating the architectural scene for
over 40 years. In this warm and compelling autobiography, he explores the highs
and lows of life at the cutting edge of architecture.

Coates’
work collides at the intersection between bodies, sexuality and design. As
‘artist-architect’ and polymath, he has designed buildings, exhibitions,
interiors and products. He is also known for his idiosyncratic and dynamic
drawings. From the 1980s onwards he captured the media spotlight, and was as likely
to appear in Vogue as the Architectural Review.

His
portfolio includes work for leading brands, such as
Liberty, Katharine Hamnett and Jasper Conran, and destination clubs and cafes
from Istanbul
to Tokyo. Buildings include The Wall in Japan, Powerhouse::uk and the Geffrye
Museum in London. He designs for many Italian companies
such as Fornasetti, GTV and Poltronova, and has
produced lively installations for international art institutions and design
exhibitions. As
Head of Architecture at the Royal College of Art from 1995-2011, he turned
the department into a leading international school.

Featuring
over 120
images of Coates’ most celebrated projects, this memoir is a visual feast for
any devotee of contemporary design. It encompasses his childhood in postwar
Malvern, student years at the Architectural Association, the founding of
radical architectural group NATØ, ’70s and ’80s London club culture and lost
loves along the way. This is a searingly honest, unvarnished personal history
of one of the UK’s most versatile and influential
designers. 

Author Biography

Nigel
Coates is an acclaimed British architect and designer. As director of Branson
Coates (1984–2006), he designed buildings,
interiors and products internationally. Examples of his work are held in
several museum collections, including the V&A in London, FRAC in Orléans and
M+ in Hong Kong. He is the author of Guide to
Ecstacity
(Laurence King, 2003), Collidoscope
(Lawrence King, 2004) and Narrative Architecture
(Wiley, 2012). Emeritus Professor and
former Head of Architecture at the Royal College of Art, he was awarded the
RIBA Annie Spink Award in 2012 for his outstanding contribution to
architectural education.