Architectural designer John Pawson – invited to share his thoughts by Wallpaper* guest editor Laila Gohar – tells us of his ‘simple tastes’ and what makes or breaks a memorable meal
John Pawson: The experience of eating at a restaurant is the sum of so many parts. It encompasses the specificity of the occasion, the physical space, the quality of the light, the nature of the food and how it is served, the character of the human interactions – with people you know and those you don’t – and the atmosphere, which is both the accumulation of all these things and something distinct in itself.
Feeling at ease is always important to me. This derives in large part from the feeling that those around me are also at ease, but can also be disrupted by something as singular as strong perfume or certain sounds.
‘I can find profound pleasure in something as simple as a bowl of soup or a plate of cheese’
John Pawson
I am generally a person of simple tastes: I can find profound pleasure in something as simple as a bowl of soup or a plate of cheese. But at the same time, my mind is currently full of memories of three exceptional meals that I recently ate in Copenhagen: one at Kong Hans Kaelder, one at Sushi Anaba, and the other at Noma. All were exemplary in every detail – a succession of honed sensations, each of them the outcome of unstinting commitments of intellectual and physical endeavour.
Hugo is a design critic, curator and the co-founder of Bard, a gallery in Edinburgh dedicated to Scottish design and craft. A long-serving member of the Wallpaper* family, he has also been the design editor at Monocle and the brand director at Studioilse, Ilse Crawford's multi-faceted design studio. Today, Hugo wields his pen and opinions for a broad swathe of publications and panels. He has twice curated both the Object section of MIART (the Milan Contemporary Art Fair) and the Harewood House Biennial. He consults as a strategist and writer for clients ranging from Airbnb to Vitra, Ikea to Instagram, Erdem to The Goldsmith's Company. Hugo has this year returned to the Wallpaper* fold to cover the parental leave of Rosa Bertoli as Global Design Director.
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