Nigel Coates is an English architect, author, and prolific designer of interiors, exhibitions, products, and lighting. He grew up in the town of Malvern, Worcestershire and was educated at Hanley Castle Grammar School before studying at the University of Nottingham (1968–71) and the Architectural Association (1972-4). He formed Branson Coates Architecture with Doug Branson in 1985-2006. He established his own studio of architecture and design in 2006. He first attracted the attention of the international architecture world in 1984 with the publication of NATO (Narrative Architecture Today) magazine, and was New Labour’s architect of choice in the late 1990s.[1] His work has been compared with that of Tom Dixon and Ron Arad. His built projects around the world include Caffè Bongo (1986), Noah’s Ark (1988), the Wall (1990) and the Art Silo (1992), all in Japan, and in Britain, the Geffrye Museum extension, Oyster House (both 1998), and the ill-fated National Centre for Popular Music in Sheffield (1999) which is now the Sheffield Hallam University students' union. As designer and curator of Powerhouse::uk (1998), an inflatable structure improbably located on Horse Guards, he is associated with the flowering of the arts in late nineties Britain dubbed by Vanity Fair as Cool Britannia.