Nigel Coates

Art Brokerage: Nigel Coates British Glass Artist: Born in 1949, and trained at University of Nottingham and the Architectural Association. Coates is one of Britain's consistently original thinkers in architecture, interior and product design. He has led a parallel career in teaching, design practice and artistically driven, internationally recognised work. His subversive spirit first came to public attention in 1984 with the publication of NATO (Narrative Architecture Today) magazine. A manifesto for a socio-culturally engaged and popular, narrative architecture, it advised readers to be the architects of their own lives, and in doing so, to radically adapt the buildings around them. Certain themes, in particular that of narrative, have continued in Coates' designs and research ever since. Beyond issues of function or style, narrative, he asserts, is a language of design that builds on people's everyday experience. Form must follow fiction. He has continued to explore the communicative and experiential potential of architecture as a language drawn from the commonplace. He believes that the city is best understood if explored as a living organism, and that popular experience and culture are central to the experience of architecture. His work plays on psycho-geographic association between the built environment and desire. Time and motion, he says, is the dynamic partner to the fixed, physical world. This approach is captured in depth in the Guide to Ecstacity which was published in 2003. Art and literary strategies, including the curation of others, find their way into many of his projects. Coates has designed and built influential interiors, exhibitions and buildings around the world. His build works in Japan include Caffè Bongo, the Wall, Noah's Ark and Art Silo, and in Britain, the National Centre for Popular Music (now the Hub), Powerhouse UK and the Geffrye Museum. Listings wanted.