Gamma Tokyo

This drawing was done in 1985, soon after Coates had been invited to Tokyo to design restaurants and shops. It was commissioned by Brutus magazine, and in it he wanted to express the entropic metamorphosis that he could see in Tokyo as an urban condition. It shows the corner of a room which includes some devices designed or at least conceived by Coates, such as the Footman TV in a shoe, and the Wombat wardrobe made out of scaffolding-like structures. Everything in the drawing suggests movement and change. The window looks over a city landscape in which the usual organisation of the city is turned upside down. This and other experiences gained in Tokyo are discussed in the first monograph about Coates work, The City in Motion. The drawing now belongs to the FRAC centre in Orleans, France.