Wells Coates was a Canadian-born architect and industrial designer who became a pioneer of Modernism in Britain. As a founder of the Isokon design company, he was instrumental in introducing the radical aesthetics of European Modernism to a sceptical British public. His work as an industrial designer yielded a range of modern consumer products that helped to transform the British domestic interior. Among his major achievements was the design of Lawn Road Flats in London, one of the first mass-housing blocks in Britain and an icon of modernist architecture.