As Jean Luc Godard said, 'Sometimes reality is too complex – stories give it form.' Coates believes the same to be true for architecture.
In this talk, the renowned architect will map some key ways of working with narrative and put these in the context of his own practice. Since the days of the NATØ group, narrative has sustained all of the architecture that interests Coates – both built and theoretical. On the home-front, Coates brings narrative to his work to function as an agent of humanity. In this lecture, he will argue that all endeavours in the realm of art, architecture and design must be approached from a broad and open perspective that cannot shy away from matters of urban decay, the architectural body and social transgression. Instead, an architecture informed by a variety of lenses can reveal the rich potential of the ordinary and the close at hand.
This lecture will celebrate the launch of Nigel Coates’ Narrative Architecture, which is published by Wiley.