"JOHN PAWSON". Collectif. Editions Gustavo Gili, Barcelone. 1998. Imprimé en Espagne. Grand in-8 carré, dos droit, couverture souple cartonnée photo à rabat. 168 pages. Textes bilingues Espagnol / Anglais, traduction par Eugeni Bonet, avant-propos de Bruce Chatwin, introduction de Deyan Sudjic, illustrés de nombreuses reproductions photographiques noir & blanc et couleurs et plans de projets de John Pawson.

 

"John Pawson came to architecture relatively late. He didn't start his studies at the Architectural Association until he was in his early 30s, after working in the family textile mill, and a long period travelling around the world, a fact which is reflected in the maturity and confidence of his earliest projects. Right from the start, he has attempted an architecture whose power comes from exploring fundamental problems of space, proportion, light and materials, rather than allowing himself to be sidetracked by stylistic mannerisms. The biggest factor influencing him in embarking on a second career was his friendship with Shiro Kuramata, whom he came to know and admire during the course of a prolonged stay in Japan. The purity, and poetic simplicity of Kuramata's work gave him an insight into a new way of looking at the world. But Pawson was neither a disciple nor a proselytizer. He was moved by Kuramata, but he had no wish to duplicate his architecture. Rather, he sought to develop his own voice. There is a take it or leave it quality to everything he does, a character that could have as much to do with his native Yorkshire as Japan or Mies van der Rohe. The self discipline of his work clearly marks Pawson's architecture as nothing to do with the whimsy, or the self referential obsessions of the mainstream in the 1980's. But it is not correct to assume that it is assertively "modern" either. It has no social programme, only a personal one. It doesn't offer any utopian prescriptions, rather it is a reminder that architecture has always had an austere strand, eschewing applied ornament, and confusion, but which is not necessarily connected with the machine aesthetic..." Deyan Sudjic.

 

Ref LAC0137