John Pawson

Tetsuka House . Tokyo 

John Pawson . photos: © edmund sumner . model: NAOCE, SJTU

Clarity and comfort do not depend on quantity but on an absolute quality of space.

This design for a compact site in Tokyo takes the form of a pristine box containing living quarters, a traditional Japanese tearoom and a courtyard open to the sky. Apertures cut into the concrete envelope frame a series of meticulously edited vistas out of the building which become part of the landscape of the interior. The exaggerated length of the wall leading to the entrance brings quiet theatre to the experience of arrival.