Nigel Coates (architect)

Nigel Coates (born 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.

He first attracted the attention of the international architecture world in 1984 with the publication of NATO (Narrative Architecture Today) magazine, 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.

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). 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.

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.

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