"I never set out to be an architect" says John Pawson at Gaggenau talk
Architectural designer John Pawson described how teaching, taking photographs and travelling the world led him to architecture during a talk at Gaggenau's installation at this year's Milan design week, hosted and filmed by Dezeen.
During the talk, titled The Art of Simplicity, the British designer spoke to Dezeen's editorial director Max Fraser about the path he took into architecture and design, shared stories from his career and explained what it means in practice to live in one of his minimalist homes.
Speaking to an audience in Villa Necchi Campiglio's glass house, where Gaggenau had created a minimal installation called Presence, Pawson described how he was initially dissuaded from pursuing architecture.
"I couldn't do maths, so I thought that precluded me from becoming an architect," he said.
As a young man, Pawson spent a period of time living in Japan, where he taught English at a university in Nagoya and toyed with the idea of becoming a Zen Buddhist monk
"[My mother] wanted me to be a missionary or something like that," he said. "So of course I chose to try and be a monk in Japan on the top of a mountain."
While living in the country and travelling around the region during the long university holidays, he developed an interest in photography, with photographs from the period eventually forming the content of a 2017 book called Spectrum, published by Phaidon Press.
"After working for my father for six years and travelling around the world, I finally went to school at 30," he said.
Quizzed on whether he felt pigeonholed by his popular image as "Mr Minimalism", Pawson stated that he didn't mind.
"Please call me anything you like," he said. "If you protest too much, you get into trouble."
"It's quite funny that every other architect in the world disagrees with that description of themselves," he continued. "I'm the only one that owns up to it."
Despite his reputation for austere minimalism, he stressed that he is not evangelistic about minimal approaches to living.
"I'm not a proselytizer," said Pawson. "I mean, I've been doing the work for myself really, I'm not trying to change things for other people."
"I have very strong ideas myself, but it's not that everyone should live like that."
Asked where he keeps his belongings in his famously uncluttered home, he offered: "deep cupboards."
"The idea is not to have more than you need," he continued. "But of course it's impossible to achieve that one hundred percent."
He went on to discuss his approach to compromise and his softening approach to client relationships.
"It's always been no compromise," Pawson said. "That's always been the idea."
"Of course, the clients are always trying to persuade you that compromise is good."
He also stressed the importance of the having good clients and commended them for their part in the architectural process.
"You know, the adage that the client is always right is not a bad one, because you can't do a project without a client," he said.
"They have a lot of dynamicism and ideas. You tend to learn more from them than they learn from you. I mean, they can't put the thing together, but you know…"
The conversation also touched on questions of scale, of both Pawson's studio and the projects that it takes on.
"The studio has remained, for the most part, around 20 people, and half of those have been with me for 25 years," he said.
"We tend not to do competitions," he stated. "If you do competitions, which you need to do for the big jobs, then you need a bigger team, and if you get the big job, then you need an even bigger team."
He described his continued interest in designing homes, questioning the idea that they are stressful and unprofitable projects for architects.
"The private house is something that's endlessly fascinating for me because they're so complex, and you're dealing with people for whom it's very personal and emotional," he said.
Asked what advice he would offer to young designers today, Pawson simply stated the importance of doing what you like.
"The things to enjoy it," he said. "There hasn't been one minute where I've been bored for 40 years."
Gaggenau was founded in 1683. Based in Germany, the brand is represented in more than 50 countries, with 60 flagships and showrooms worldwide.
Dezeen has previously teamed up with Gaggenau to host filmed talks during the brand's biennial presentations at Villa Necchi Campiglio during Milan design week in 2022 and 2024.
More recently, Dezeen collaborated with Gaggenau to host a filmed talk in its flagship showroom in Dubai, which was also moderated by Fraser.
Partnership content
This talk was filmed and produced by Dezeen as part of a partnership with Gaggenau. Find out more about Dezeen partnership content here.
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