John Pawson

Architect John Pawson is a master minimalist whose poetic restraint has engaged everyone from Martha Stewart to Donald Judd. John Pawson came to architecture surprisingly late in life. Educated at Eton, he worked in his family's textile mill in Halifax, Yorkshire, and lived in Japan for four years before returning to London to study at the Architectural Association. Already in his thirties, Pawson opened his practice in 1981. He has since worked on a wide variety of projects, from the transformation of the old Dean Clough carpet mills in his home town of Halifax to the construction of Calvin Klein's flagship store in Manhattan. His work encompasses furniture, exhibition, and interior design, and has been shown internationally. Pawson has recently published the best-selling Minimum (1998), a sumptuous illustration of his minimalist credo, and John Pawson: Works (2000), with critic Deyan Sudjic.