Wells Coates Architect, Modern British Architecture, UK 20thC Buildings Photos, Thirties Housing, Modernism
Wells Coates Architect : Architecture
Key 20th Century English Architect & Designer – Lawn Road flats, London, England, UK
post updated 5 Apr 2021
Wells Coates Architect
1895-1958
Major Wells Coates Building
Lawn Road flats, Belsize Park, London, Southeast England, UK
Date built: 1934
photograph © Nick Weall
Lawn Road flats, Hampstead
Wells Coates – Key Projects
Featured Wells Coates Buildings, alphabetical:
BBC Studios, London, Southeast England, UK
Date built: 1931
The Circles, Long Ditton, Surrey, Southeast England, UK
Date built: 1930s
Cresta Silks factory, Southeast England, UK
Date built: 1928
Cresta Silks shop, Brompton Road, west London
Date built: 1929
Lawn Road flats – Isokon, Hampstead, north London
Date built: 1934
photo © Robin Lambert
Palace Gate flats, Kensington, west London
Date built: 1939
Sunspan House, Southeast England, UK
Date built: 1934-35
Wells Coates’ flat, Yeoman’s Row, Knightsbridge, west London
Date built: 1935
More architecture projects online soon
The architect was also a proficient industrial designer
Buildings in more detail
Isokon, Hampstead, London
Lawn Road flats was influenced by Le Corbusier‘s housing proposals
First Client: Jack & Molly Pritchard of Venesta Plywood – Isokon building, London
Four storey white block with clean styling and deck access.
The property includes 29 apartments,
Walter Gropius stayed here from 1934-37. Over famous residents include the artist Moholy-Nagy, write Agatha Christie and architect Marcel Breuer.
When we first visited in the late 1990’s the place was not only decrepit but quite scary, with signs of squatting and drug use. It has since been completely refurbished.
Isokon stands for Isometric unit construction.
The Circles, Long Ditton, Surrey, Southeast England, UK
Date built: 1930s
2006 – refurbishment:
John Winter Architect
Private house
10 Palace Gate, Kensington, west London, England
Date built: 1937
Refurbished lobby 2003 by John McAslan & Partners, Architects
Modern highrise
Exhibition project
Sunspan house, Ideal Home Exhibition
Date built: 1934
More architecture projects by this 20th Century English Architect & Designer online soon
Location: Tokyo, Japan / London, England, UK
Wells Coates Architect Information
Wells Coates co-founded the MARS group
born in Tokyo
1895-1958
Canadian parents
Isokon building in Hampstead, North London, England:
photograph © Nick Weall
Education:
University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada : M&E Engineering
University of London, UK : Diesel Engine Phd, 1924
Worked for a time as a journalist for the Daily Express newspaper
Architect practice started in 1929, in England
Designing Modern Britain – Design Museum Exhibition
2006
Well-known architectural assistants to Coates: Denys Lasdun; Patrick Gwynne
Modern Architecture
Wells embraced Le Corbusier’s architectural mantra that buildings should be ‘machines for living’ (machine à habiter). This ideal was best-reflected in his Isokon building (also known as Lawn Road Flats), completed in 1934. Indeed, the architectural critic J.M. Richards suggested that he improved on Corbusier, coming “nearer to the machine à habiter than anything Corbusier ever designed”. The building was compared to the exterior of an ocean liner by the novelist Agatha Christie, who lived there for a time, so clean and striking was the design.
source: wikipedia
British Building Designs
Denys Lasdun – Wells Coates assistant
Oak Hill House, Hampstead, North London, south east England, United Kingdom
Design: Claridge Architects
photograph : Simon Kennedy
New Hampstead House
Comments / photos for the Wells Coates Architecture page welcome
Website: Wells Coates Architect