John Pawson

John Pawson (°Halifax, England, 1949) is a British architectural designer whose work is known for its minimalist aesthetic.

Coming from a wealthy family, he was schooled at Eton. After a period in the family textile business Pawson left for Japan in his mid-twenties, moving to Tokyo during the final year of his stay, where he visited the studio of Japanese architect and designer Shiro Kuramata. On his return to England he enrolled at the Architecture Association in London, leaving to establish his own practice in 1981.

Pawson’s work focuses on ways of approaching fundamental problems of space, proportion, light and materials.

Whilst private houses have remained at the core of the work, projects have spanned a wide range of scales and building typologies, from the Sackler Crossing across the lake at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, a flagship store for Calvin Klein and major commissions for Ian Schrager, to ballet sets, yacht interiors and a new Cistercian monastery in Bohemia.