John Pawson’s Plain Space in Italy

John Pawson has designed a 'room' within a room for the permanent collection of sculptures at Fondazione Bisazza, Italy. Illuminated by overhead skylights, an oval curves to create a rounded wall, the surface of which has a textured-quality, achieved with grey tiles. Above, an arced ceiling is invisibly up lit – a textbook example of Pawson’s characteristic use of light and space.

John Pawson, Plain Space

The installation is part of Pawson's exhibition, Plain Space in Vicenza, Italy, offering Italian fans of minimalist architecture the chance to experience the architect's clean-lined vision. The show, curated by Pawson himself, presents a survey of his work. Plain space was originally shown in 2010 at London’s Design Museum; it was the first major exhibition tracking Pawson's career to date, and it is a testament to the architect’s consistency of style – a pared-back composition of only essential elements.

John Pawson

For Pawson, minimalism is "the quality that an object has when every component, every detail and every junction has been reduced or condensed to the essentials. It is the result of the omission of the inessentials.” In the Phaidon sale, you can snap up Minimum - where Pawson explains what it means to him in detail - and Works, a monograph - for half price. Of course, in the shop you’ll also find Pawson’s book on Plain Space, plus his most recent publication A Visual Inventory, a selection of images from his personal archive annotated by the man himself.