John Pawson and Tekla: perfect bedfellows

John Pawson is sat in his wife Catherine’s study at Home Farm when he dials in over Zoom. The couple’s renovated farmhouse, located in a small village in the Cotswolds, is the apotheosis of Spartan living. Here, sharp lines of design, a suffusion of natural light and the finest materials do magical things together, ushering in a sense of grace, warmth and visual clarity using an artistic language of subtraction that has been the British architect’s signature for more than four decades. The study, however, is slightly different. 

Dominated by a large red glossy table and floor-to-ceiling shelves lined with books, it’s perfectly tidy but patently “un-Pawson” – by his standards, it’s terribly cluttered. “My wife [an interior designer] is the exact opposite to me,” he said. “I love her madly but she builds this whole history next to the bed – magazines, dog toys, reading glasses… all ten pairs seem to end up there. She loves books, but she also likes looking at their spines. To me, it’s a reminder that we have 35 travel books on Tanzania, most of which are out of date.” 

Pawson is as prolific in architecture as he is in the world of product design. He’s applied his purist principles to iconic buildings the world over from private residences, airport lounges and luxury boutiques to restaurants, exhibition spaces and places of worship including St John at Hackney, his first UK church completed in 2020. On a smaller scale, he’s emboldened everyday objects, including door handles, tableware, benches and lighting, with this same reductive and sleek approach. 

His branch of minimalism has a calm and immersive quality that arches seamlessly from secular to spiritual realms as proven by his ground-breaking 1995 Calvin Klein boutique in New York and his ongoing work for the monastery of Our Lady of Nový Dvůr in the Czech Republic.

Now, Pawson has turned his hand to the restful sanctuary that is the bedroom with a newly designed wooden bed frame and matching set of bedding made in collaboration with Tekla, marking his third collaboration with the Danish homeware brand. The first projects were dedicated to two limited series of luxury blankets, which, like this third release, were stylistically influenced by the interplay of light, colour, shadow and space in and around his Oxfordshire home. 

Article source: https://www.theweek.co.uk/arts-life/design-architecture/957286/john-pawson-tekla-perfect-bedfellows