Quick Takes With: John Pawson
“It’s all architecture”: This is John Pawson’s vision, whether he is designing a home or a stage set. His singular focus and lifelong commitment? “Rigorously simple” design.
About his work, which ranges in scale and type: “Whether at the scale of a monastery, a house, a saucepan, or a ballet, everything is traceable back to a consistent set of preoccupations with mass, volume, surface, proportion, junction, geometry, repetition, light and ritual. In this way, even something as modest as a fork can become a vehicle for much broader ideas about how we live and what we value.”
Today John writes in from London with his favorite white paint, a seminal book, and a glimpse of his own new book, John Pawson: The Minimal Home.
Above: Portrait by Gilbert McCarragher.
You’re invited to dinner. What’s your go-to gift?
Seasonal flowers from Flower Box; Japanese chocolates from Sakurado; Who’s Afraid of Romanée Conti by Dan Keeling.
Three words that describe my design style:
Clear, calm, quiet
First design love?
The alleys and snickets in York stone around my hometown of Halifax
What’s on your bedside table?
Blackout blind control and light switch
What’s your desert island architecture-related book?
Architecture of Truth, Lucien Herve’s photographs of Le Thoronet Abbey
Above: A look inside John Pawson: The Minimal Home by John Pawson with Deyan Sudjic, out from Phaidon.
What’s a film or TV show whose aesthetic has stuck with you?
Death of a Tea Master about Sen no Rikyū
What podcast or playlist do you put on when you need inspiration?
I don’t, but I did do a playlist for Phaidon of 10 songs, helped by my son who has a record label
What has been your best house upgrade?
I try to get it right first time
A design lesson you wish you’d known sooner?
You are always learning
Above: The book divided into six chapters: living, cooking, eating, bathing, sleeping, and working.
My favorite sheets are…
My favorite paint color for the bedroom is…
Bleo paint: 1 of 14 shades of white
My go-to kitchen utensil is…
Espresso machine
What item from your closet do you have on repeat?
Grey cashmere jumper
Above: It’s illustrated with Pawson’s work as well as nods to influential places: Donald Judd’s home in Marfa, Japanese hot springs, the Farnsworth House by Mies van der Rohe, and the Cistercian Abbey of Le Thoronet in France.
Favorite design shop to visit (online or in person)?
Objects of Use, Oxford, run by my daughter’s friend
What is the last thing you purchased for your house?
Pumps to circulate the water in the medieval carp pond which has crashed after 600 years
I don’t leave the house without…
My (iPhone) camera
Something you’re coveting?
Not something material
Above: For more on the book and to order, head to Phaidon.
Thanks so much, John! You can follow his work at @johnpawson and @johnpawsonworks on Instagram or via johnpawson.com.