Wells Wintemute Coates [commonly known as Wells Coates] was born to Canadian parents in Tokyo, Japan on 17 December 1895. His mother, Sarah Agnes (Wintemute) Coates (1865-1945), was an architect and had been a pupil of Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright.
He left Japan in 1913 and following a period travelling various parts of the world, studied at McGill University and the University of British Columbia (1913-16, 1919-21, B.A. and B.Sc. in Structural and Mechanical Engineering). He then moved to England to study at the University of London (1922-24, Ph.D in Engineering).
He worked as a journalist with the ‘Daily Express’ in London and Paris from 1923 to 1926. He also worked as an architect and engineer for Adams & Thompson and Chrysede Textile Company from 1924 to 1928.
In 1930 Coates established Wells Coates & Partners Ltd., which became Isokon Ltd. the following year. During the 1930s Coates designed furniture for Isokon and Pel, radios for Ecko, display stands for Vanesta, and exhibitions for the MARS. Modern Architectural Research Group.
With David Pleydell-Bouverie (1911-1994) he also formed the architectural partnership Wells Coates & Pleydell-Bouverie in London in 1932. They designed a series of twenty Modernist Sunspan Houses and in 1934 designed the Second Feathers Club in Norland Gardens, London. The partnership had been dissolved by 1937 when Pleydell-Bouverie emigrated to the USA
Other architectural projects by Coates during the 1930s included the British Broadcasting Corporation Studios in London (1931) and Newcastle (1932), the Isokon Flats in Lawn Road, Hampstead (1933) and the Ekco Factory in Southend-on Sea (1936).
During the Second World War (1939-45) Coates served as a Technical Staff Officer (Wing Commander) with the RAF (VR). He resumed his work as an architect and designer following the War and was in partnership with Jacqueline Tyrwhitt in London from 1949 to 1952. In addition to various architectural projects, his activities during the 1940s and 1950s included the design of a number of radio and television cabinets such as the 'Princess' portable radio for E.K. Cole Ltd. (1947-48); the design of the Telekinema for the 1951 Festival of Britain in London; the architecture and planning of Iroquois New Town in Ontario (1952-54); and the design of the ‘Wingsail’ catamaran.
In 1955-56 he was Visiting Professor at Harvard University. He was in private practice from 1956 until his death two years later.
Coates was a member of Unit One (1933-35), and a founder member of the MARS Group in 1933. In 1939 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects (FRIBA) and in 1944 was made a Royal Designer for Industry (RDI).
He died in Vancouver, British Columbia on 17 June 1958.
Allan, John. ‘Lawn Road Flats (The Isokon) - a new version of urban living’. Docomono Journal no. 58, 2018 pp. 78-81 [A history of the Lawn Road Flats (also known as The Isokon) in Hampstead, north London designed by Wells Coates in 1934; and a report on its recent restoration by Avanti Architects]
Basham, Anna. 'Wells Coates (1895-1958): Modernist Japonmisme' in Britain and Japan: Biographical Portraits, Volume VII. Compiled & Edited By Hugh Cortazzi. Leiden, Netherlands: Brill, 2010 pp. 456–468 [Also available as an e-book ISBN: 9789004218031]
Boumphrey, Geoffrey. ‘The designers. 6: Wells Coates’. Architectural Review vol. 79, January 1936 pp.45-46
Cantacuzino, Sherban. Wells Coates: a monograph. London: Gordon Fraser, 1978
Coates, Wells. 'Notes on dwellings for to-morrow' in Flats: Municipal and Private Enterprise. London: Ascot Gas Water Heaters Ltd., 1938 pp. 50-55
Coates, Wells. ‘Wells Coates’ in Unit 1: The Modern Movement in English Architecture, Painting and Sculpture. Edited by Herbert Read. London: Cassell & Company, Ltd., 1934 pp. 105-115
Cohn, Laura. The door to a secret room: a portrait of Wells Coates. Aldershot, England: Scolar Press, 1999
Coulson, Anthony J. 'Wells Wintemute Coates' in Contemporary Designers. London: Macmillan, 1984 pp.125-126 [Note: later editions of Contemporary Designers do not include Coates]
Croft, Catherine. ‘Coates, the comeback kid’. Building Design no. 1657, 21 January 2005 pp. 12-17 [Discusses plans for the restoration of three buildings designed by Wells Coates: Lawn Road, London (by Avanti Architects); Embassy Court, Brighton (by Conran & Partners); and 10 Palace Gate (by John McAslan & Partners)]
Croft, Catherine. ‘Isokon; Architect (1934): Wells Coates, architects for restoration: Avanti Architects.’ Architects’ Journal vol. 223, no. 12, 30 March 2006 pp. 25-37 [A report on the restoration by Avanti Architects of the Lawn Road Flats (also known as The Isokon) in Hampstead, north London, originally designed by Wells Coates in 1934]
Darling, Elizabeth. 'Institutionalizing English Modernism 1924-33: from the Vers Group to MARS'. Architectural History vol. 55, 2012 pp. 299-320
Darling, Elizabeth. Wells Coates. Liverpool: Historic England in association with Liverpool University Press, 2012
Darling, Elizabeth. ‘Wells Coates: maker of modern British Architecture’. Architectural Review vol. 224, no. 1339, September 2008 pp. 82-87
Elgohary, Farouk Hafiz. Wells Coates and His Position in the Beginning of the Modern Movement in Britain. PhD., University of London, 1965
Hanson, Brian. ‘Wells Coates’. Architects’ Journal vol. 161, no. 13, 26 March 1975 pp. 652-653
'Obituary'. The Builder 27 Jun 1958 p. 1178
'Obituary'. RIBA Journal vol. 65, August 1958 p. 357
Powers, Alan. Modern. The Modern Movement in Britain. London: Merrell, 2005
Richards, J. M. ‘Wells Coates 1893 [1895]-1958’. Architectural Review vol. 124, December 1958 pp. 357-360
Wells Coates: Architect and Designer 1895-1958. Introduction by Sherban Cantacuzino. Oxford, England: Oxford Polytechnic Press 1979 [Catalogue of Exhibition at the Oxford Museum of Modern Art]