Wells Coates (Twentieth Century Architects)

Author: Elizabeth Darling

This book is a captivating account of the life and work of Wells Coates, one of the pioneers of British Modernism. Born in Japan to missionary parents from Canada, Coates studied engineering in Canada and England before deciding that architecture was his passion.

Despite having no formal training, Coates went on to become a leading architect of his generation working in Britain in the inter-war years. An innovative and inventive man with many strings to his bow an engineer, teacher, architect and product designer to name a few Coates was at the forefront of the development of the Modernist movement in Britain. His designs such as the Lawn Road Flats in London, one of the earliest and most influential modern apartment blocks, and Embassy Court in Brighton, were truly transformational and offered a new solution to the problems of urban living, many of which are still relevant to today.

Coates was not only a seminal figure in the development of the Modernist architectural style in Britain, he was also a tireless champion of the Modernist cause. In 1933 he and four other architects and critics founded the MARS (Modern Architectural Research) group a think tank for British Modernism which produced groundbreaking plans and exhibitions. The outbreak of World War II and the subsequent decline in commissions in the post-war years brought a halt to his flourishing career. Coates returned to his native Canada where he continued to design modernist housing. In recent years several of Coates most notable projects the Lawn Road Flats, Embassy Court and parts of Palace Gate have been renovated, underlining perhaps that his ideas of what it meant to live well in the 1930s are still pertinent today.

The book is illustrated with many historical images, many of which are previously unpublished, and includes specially commissioned colour photography by James O. Davies. It will delight architects, students, architectural historians and anyone who is interested in the Modernist movement in Britain. This book is part of the Twentieth Century Architects series published jointly by RIBA Publishing, English Heritage and The Twentieth Century Society.

Dimensions: 230 x 160 mm
Extent: 160 Pages, paperback
Publication: Liverpool University Press, July 2012
ISBN: 9781859464373