Lives in Architecture: Nigel Coates

Irreverentand iconoclastic, Nigel Coates has been agitating the architectural scene forover 40 years. In this warm and compelling autobiography, he explores the highsand 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 dynamicdrawings. From the 1980s onwards he captured the media spotlight, and was as likelyto appear in Vogue as the Architectural Review.Hisportfolio includes work for leading brands, such asLiberty, Katharine Hamnett and Jasper Conran, and destination clubs and cafesfrom Istanbulto Tokyo. Buildings include The Wall in Japan, Powerhouse::uk and the GeffryeMuseum in London. He designs for many Italian companiessuch as Fornasetti, GTV and Poltronova, and hasproduced lively installations for international art institutions and designexhibitions. AsHead of Architecture at the Royal College of Art from 1995-2011, he turnedthe department into a leading international school.Featuringover 120images of Coates' most celebrated projects, this memoir is a visual feast forany devotee of contemporary design. It encompasses his childhood in postwarMalvern, student years at the Architectural Association, the founding ofradical architectural group NATO, '70s and '80s London club culture and lostloves along the way. This is a searingly honest, unvarnished personal historyof one of the UK's most versatile and influentialdesigners.