BOOK:John Pawson-Anatomy of Minimum, Phaidon Publications

John Ward Pawson is a British architectural designer whose work is known for its minimalist aesthetic. Educated at Eton, Pawson worked in his family’s Yorkshire textile mill before spending four years teaching in Japan. 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 Architectural Association School of Architecture in London, leaving to establish his own practice in 1981 His architectural career to date has spanned a wide variety of projects, ranging in scale from a compact apartment for the writer Bruce Chatwin, to Calvin Klein’s flagship store in Manhattan and airport lounges for Cathay Pacific in Hong Kong. Work in progress includes commissions to design a number of private houses around the world and a new Paris store and private Manhattan apartment for Calvin Klein. The  monograph “John Pawson-Anatomyof Minimum” is the latest volume in Phaidon’s documentation of John Pawson’s stellar career, hones in on the essential details that mark his distinctive architectural and aesthetic style. It groups a selection of his recent works into domestic projects, including his own house in rural England; extended sacred spaces; and repurposed structures, such as London’s Design Museum. Dimitris Lempesis