“I don’t really see interior design as a discipline,” says Coates. “I see it as a phenomenon. I call it ‘atmos’: when something special happens in an interior which isn’t just functional or stylistic.”
He goes on to explain that, for him, a good interior “needs to communicate something extra. Not just to a visitor but to the person who lives in it, who’s familiar with it. It needs to create a warmth, cause a kind of alchemy in the way you exist in it.”
Coates says his breakthrough in interiors came in 1986 with Caffè Bongo in Tokyo. Inspired by Italian director Federico Fellini’s 1960s movie La Dolce Vita, the café combined classical statues and architectural elements with parts of an aeroplane that had seemingly crashed into it.
“I don’t really see interior design as a discipline,” says Coates. “I see it as a phenomenon. I call it ‘atmos’: when something special happens in an interior which isn’t just functional or stylistic.”
He goes on to explain that, for him, a good interior “needs to communicate something extra. Not just to a visitor but to the person who lives in it, who’s familiar with it. It needs to create a warmth, cause a kind of alchemy in the way you exist in it.”
Coates says his breakthrough in interiors came in 1986 with Caffè Bongo in Tokyo. Inspired by Italian director Federico Fellini’s 1960s movie La Dolce Vita, the café combined classical statues and architectural elements with parts of an aeroplane that had seemingly crashed into it.
“[It] may seem completely wild,” says Coates. “But I still assert that the crashed aircraft into that building was calm compared with the other nonsense that was going on up and down the street.
“There was an aircraft wing at the top of the window. Charles Jencks described it as a crash. I would see it more as a fusion of the biggest object that symbolises movement and the architectural condition of the window.”
The Waterhouse at South Bund by Neri&Hu, winner of the 2011 Inside Festival awards
When judging the awards for this year’s Inside Festival, which takes place in Singapore in October, Coates will be looking for projects that “create a sort of chemistry”.
He says: “What I want to see is the translation of an idea. If it’s just based on style and nice finishes, even clever organisation, that’s not enough. The idea needs to translate into some kind of sensual experience, it needs to capture you.
“Interiors can be dismissed, but if we’re talking about excellence, I think it’s just as hard to do a good interior as it is to do a good building.”
The music featured in the above movie is a track called HKPF by UK producer Sun Yin. You can listen to the full track on Dezeen music Project.