Nigel Coates

BCU Open Lecture Series 2026_27 [S1]

Conceived as a space for provocation, speculation and productive disagreement, the OPEN Lecture Series brings together distinguished practitioners, thinkers and makers whose work challenges convention and opens new ways of seeing, making and inhabiting the world.

The series is intended to disrupt established norms, challenge perceptions and stimulate conversation. It is a space in which ideas, practices and perspectives can collide, where the familiar is questioned and the unfamiliar given room to emerge.

These lectures form part of our commitment to a culture of studied speculation and exquisite experimentation: a place where practice meets research, where certainty can be unsettled, and where new ideas can take root.

We seek questions worth asking.

The programme:

Open Lecture 01: Sir Peter Cook RA (1st October)

Open Lecture 02: Nigel Coates RA (15th October)

Open Lecture 03: Prof Neil Thomas MBE RDI Hon FRIBA (29th October)

Open Lecture 04: Prof Neil Spiller (12th November)

Open Lecture 05: Smout Allen (19th November)

Open Lecture 06: Melissa Clinch – Wilkinson Eyre (3rd of December)

A new department. A new conversation. A place of praxis.