Nigel Coates, 'Noah' armchair

The Noah chair looks like a distinctive one-off piece, though it is part of a manufactured range of seats. Nigel Coates has made much of the wood’s texture – sandblasting has given it a worn, almost weathered look. The form of the heavy, solid, shaped seat and curved back at first appear quite traditional, but unusually the arms dip underneath the seat, which is joined to the thin steel frame with standard industrial fastenings. The frame’s finish contrasts with the wood, and the welded rods provide a strong rigid supporting structure.

Coates is well known as one of the first foreign architects to be accepted in Japan. His Japanese club and bar interiors use mixed materials, images and objects in imaginative, fantasy settings. He has argued that interiors should be designed so that people respond to them, like reading parts of a story or seeing scenes from a film. In London, Coates designed the Body Zone in the Millennium Dome, as well as fashion stores for Katherine Hamnett and Jasper Conran.