Designer Desire: Wells Coates

Born in Tokyo, Wells Coates (1895-1958) was a British modernist architect and designer of Canadian parentage. Greatly inspired by the likes of Le Corbusier, he designed a number of public and private commercial and residential buildings.

My first proper introduction to Wells Coates was when I was at the University of Brighton. I did a summer school course in photography where I focussed on capturing images of Embassy Court (seen at the top of our montage above) – my favourite building in the city – located on the seafront in Hove. It was the mid-1990s at the time, and the building (erected in 1935) was in a very sorry state; the 11-storey façade was rusty, crumbling and strewn with ugly satellite dishes – but its beauty still shone through. Today it’s a des-res and one of the 72 flats would set you back a cool half a million pounds and more!

In 1934, he designed the Isokon / Lawn Road Flats, Hampstead for Molly and Jack Pritchard. The couple and their family lived at the address, with some of the other 32 flats being occupied by design greats of the time; Walter Gropius, Marcel Breuer and László Maholy-Nagy.

The following year – with David Bartholomew Pleydell-Bouverie – Wells Coates designed the Sunspan Houses. Fifteen of them were built; including one in Portsmouth, another in Burnham, Buckinghamshire, three on Woodlands Avenue in New Maldon, Essex, Chadwell St Mary, Essex and Esher in Surrey.

In 1939, he designed 10 Palace Gate, a block of luxury flats in London’s Kensington for construction company, Randall Bell. Flats currently command rents of over £1,000 per week. A space in the building’s underground car park is currently for sale for the princely sum of £65,000.

He designed the Telecinema – one of the 1951 Festival of Britain buildings. Apparently it was:

…the first theatre in the world in which big screen television, 3-dimensional pictures and tereophonic (sic) sound took its place on par with the cinema… spectators wearing (the) special stereoscopic spectacles…

The woven upholstery fabric for the Telekinema’s seating was designed by Lucienne Day in 1951.⁠⁠

In addition to buildings, he designed office furniture for Kingfisher Limited of West Bromwich, some examples are included in our montage above. He also created 9 models of radio for Ekco including the round Bakelite AD65 (1934), AD75 (1940), A22 (1945) and rectangular A33 RadioTime (1946).

There are a number of books that investigate the man and his works. His daughter, Laura Cohn, authored The Door to a Secret Room: A Portrait of Wells Coates. There’s a 1970s monograph written by Sherban Cantacuzino and a more recent one by Elizabeth Darling.

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Additional image credits:
Artnet | V&A

Designer Desire: Mies van der Rohe

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Last week we featured a gorgeous Detroit townhouse designed by a very famous architect. It was only then that we realised that we’d never really highlighted him – just the occasional mention in passing about some of the furniture that he designed.

Mies van der Rohe (1886-1969) is probably the most influential modernist architect to have ever lived – and we’re not saying that lightly. The skyscraper would not be what it is today without his forward-thinking ideas. The concept drawing (first image below) was created with the idea of using soaring glass and steel on the outside of a building – something that had never been done before. It was 1921 and the architectural world wasn’t ready; the design he submitted was unsuccessful.

He was a contemporary of other eminent Bauhaus architects and designers such as Walter Gropius, Le Corbusier, Marcel Breuer, Wassily Kandinsky and László Moholy-Nagy. He become director of the Bauhaus in 1930, remaining until he emigrated to Chicago in 1937 to become head of the architecture department at Illinois Institute of Technology.

You get an understanding of Mies van der Rohe, his methods and his beliefs from some of the quotes that have been attributed to him:

We must be as familiar with the functions of our building as with our materials. We must learn what a building can be, what it should be, and also what it must not be

Architecture has the power to create order out of unholy confusion

We’ve selected just a few of jis many and varied ground-breaking buildings; he’s designed houses, apartment blocks, a kiosk, a petrol station and a public library.

We’ve placed them in chronological order, according to the date they were completed, to illustrate his progression.

Unsuccessful 1921 design entry for the Friedrichstrasse skyscraper competition

German Pavilion designed for the 1929 International Exposition in Barcelona, Spain

Villa Tugendhat in Brno, Czech Republic. Built between 1929 & 1930

Interior of Villa Tugendhat in Brno, Czech Republic

Kiosk built in 1932 as part of the Bauhaus buildings, Dessau

Landhaus Lemke, built in 1933 in Alt-Hohenschönhausen, Berlin

Farnsworth House, designed & built between 1945 and 1951 in Plano, Illinois

Interior of Farnsworth House, designed & built between 1945 and 1951 in Plano, Illinois

860-880 Lake Shore Drive Apartments, completed in 1951 and situated on the Shore of Lake Michigan in Streeterville, Chicago, Illinois

S. R. Crown Hall (built 1950–1956) - College of Architecture at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, Illinois — S. R. Crown Hall (built 1950–1956) – College of Architecture at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, Illinois

Seagram Building, 375 Park Avenue, Manhattan, New York City. Completed in 1958

Gas station, Nun's Island, Montreal - 1969 — Gas station, Nun’s Island, Montreal – 1969

Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library, Washington DC, completed in 1972

Additional image credits:

MOMA | Wikiarquitectura | Wikipedia

Blomus tea set

This stainless steel tea set caught our eye at a local flea market last week. What a fabulous modernist shape!

The lady selling it thought it dated from the 1960’s. We could go along with that assumption in terms of design – you could just see it in the departure lounge of 2001: A Space Oddysey!

However, this date was far from certain and would require some checking. It was clearly marked to the base, so detective work was quite straightforward.

As it turned out, it dates from the noughties – and is the limited edition ‘Asia’ tea set produced by Blomus of Germany.

The design and quality is superb – and we love little details like the integral strainer. The set comprises teapot, lidded milk and sugar bowls – and under tray. Form meets function perfectly.

It’s quite quickly become sought after and collectable. It’s just gone into a mid century modern corner of a new retail space that we’ve just acquired… more details to follow on that! It’s priced at £125 the set.

Tempting tea set

And the nominations for our favourite purchase of the week are… *dramatic pause*… it’s like the Oscars… well, not quite. Anyway, our choice for favourite purchase of the week is this fabulous 1960s tea set.

You can’t beat a stainless steel teapot when it comes to style and practicality when thinking about your daily brew. It keeps your tea hot for longer compared to other materials and is the hygienic choice. Also, it doesn’t crack, chip or smash like ceramic teapots are prone to doing.

We see so many drab, average-looking stainless steel tea sets from this period that we don’t normally look twice. Just occasionally, one stands out from the crowd!

This one’s quite sculptural – we love the angular ‘hollow’ handles and circular teak finials. It has a really clean, modernist look. We’ve no idea of the designer or manufacturer. The only markings indicate it was made in Hong Kong, which was quite common during this period, as many companies based production there.

Whoever is responsible, there’s no doubting that it’s a great looking piece. Just the thing to accompany a plateful of modernist triangular sandwiches (crusts removed, of course) – or sports biscuits with their 1972 Munich Olympics vibe (the original versions, at least). Alternatively, the set could just sit on open mid-century modern shelving, looking fabulous. Let us know if you do happen to know a possible designer for it – or if you’d like to own it, of course!

H is for Home Harbinger

Tag: modernist

Designer Desire: Wells Coates

Designer Desire: Mies van der Rohe

Blomus tea set

Tempting tea set