John Pawson: "Plain Space"

Some thoughts from John Pawson's exhibition held at Design Museum (which I loved and went twice):

In the past when people did not own much, it was luxurious to have things, hence people were attracted to decorative design. But times are changing. People are overwhelmed by amount of information and products. Cities are overcrowded with people and objects. Things are not scarce but the space is.
His own house is pretty much a standard house in London, but it has got a large storage. More storage signifies that the space can be with less stuff, creating empty space to think and breath. It depends on what kind of person you are but innovation can happen in a messy room full of things but it can also happen in a clear and empty room. Personally I think I would prefer the latter and how Pawson organizes houses suggested me of how I want to live. Physical order is calming.

His design is quite ordinary in the sense that they often have pretty standard rectangular shapes. The money and thinking are put more in the use of materials than in the forms. Plus, since it's architecturally less and there are less things to deal with, Pawson can really pay attention to details. The 1:1 space that he built within the exhibition was the perfect place to experience the rich smell of the wood and how details of his design (lighting, colors, material etc...) was considered well. Pawson's works are very minimal, but at the same time there are something luxurious about them. I'm not sure about public buildings or other architectural buildings or at least that's how I want my house to be: simplicity, clear spacing and with rich material.

物が溢れる現代社会では、「物がある」ことよりも、「スペースがある」方が贅沢なのではないか、というのがJohn Pawsonの建築の根源。
彼の建築に観られるミニマリズムとは「引き算の美学」ではなく、「最高級の贅沢」。

何を贅沢と思うかの哲学の提案。
ライフスタイルとして、クリアなスペースの中で勉強や生活をしたい。
ただ、「なにもない」デザインにも関わらず、無機質で冷たい印象ではなくて、暖かみがあり落ち着く建築となっているから素敵。

How Pawson uses lights is incredible and his work always seem to give poetic impression. My favorite of all is Novy Dvur, and that in particular is incredibly poetic.

All photos from www.johnpawson.com, Courtesy John Pawson Ltd

Asking the Right Question

Things I noticed from the crit: people ask questions about what they thought through.

For instance one of the girls commented that our magazine should have considered more about the overall look and how individual articles go together as one whole magazine. The girl who asked this question has really improved the overall unity of their magazine since the interim crit.
My group asked ourselves a lot of questions about scale and relevance of material, and they became the things that I asked to others during the crit.

i.e. More you think and question your own work, easier it becomes to ask questions about works of others.


I think asking right questions is a talent and a skill. A very valuable one. I also think asking right question is more difficult than it may sound. I certainly am not too good at it myself. It is true that asking question is a great way to learn but I often don't even know what I want to know.
When a 'right question' is asked, it certainly provides new perspectives to both questionnaire and the answerer.


良い質問が出来るということは、重要なスキルだと思う。
ただ、良い質問をするというのは意外と難しい。自分も質問するのは得意じゃない。「何が知りたいのか」「何がわからないのか」さえも分からないことが多い。

ただ、自分のやっていることを多角的に考える癖（「なんでこの素材なのか」「どういう目的なのか」みたいなのことを自問自答）があれば、他人に質問するのも少しは楽になる気がする。
そういう風にして、考える訓練をしていくしかないのかな。

Voice of a Designer

How a designer sees, how a researcher sees, how a teacher, fisherman, dancer, businessman, cleaner see the world will obviously be different. Probably the most effective way of sharing your perception is via linguistic communication (verbal and written). I suppose that's the reason why writing has always been so important in schools. You may not use writing in your daily job, but being able to clearly express your view gives voice to otherwise unnoticed ideas.
For instance, let's say we are trying to decide upon the structure of an education. Scientists would say it's science that matters for the future so we need a good science education, mathematicians say it's math, writers say it's great communication skill that matters etc. In such situation, artists/designers should join the discussion and be able to argue the importance of art/design education. We need to be able to justify ourselves in a way, so that art/design could remain in the education in a good form.
I don't think it's necessary for all designer to be political and chatty, but some should be. Luckily, there are some designers that are great writers.

The place where I started thinking about this was during TSI (Typography Interest Group). Catherine was talking about how she (a designer) sees books differently from historians. She might see a historic book and she could be thinking about aesthetics of the layout, which historian will definitely not going to notice. As I write this, I'm thinking this is extremely obvious that we all think differently, but I still find such differences in perception interesting.
To be more specific, I am always jealous of the way architects think. Many are amazing writers.


Leaving that aside, Duarte and I have been working on a magazine brief that is due on Monday. We are in the final stage of the project and we've been quite busy for past few days. We've been thinking about the significance of delivering news and information on paper in this digital age.

"Rachel Whiteread: Drawings" at Tate Britain

I went to Rachel Whiteread's exhibition on Friday. She's most known for her sculptural works, but this exhibition focused on her drawings, and also exhibited some objects she owns. She is one of the few sculptural artists that I think makes personal and poetic works. (Anther one I just thought of is Do Ho Suh. I suppose houses as a subject makes it personal. And now that I think about it there are similarities between those two artists' works.)

The exhibition included works such as these here:
All photos from Tate ETC., Courtesy the artist and Gagosian, London © Rachel Whiteread

I would really like to recommend this exhibition, but it might have just finished this weekend. I too often go to exhibitions in the last minutes.
My notes from the exhibition:
For further reading I would recommend
http://www.tate.org.uk/tateetc/issue20/rachelwhiteread.htm

Adrian Shaughnessy Lecture : "Designer, Writer, Publisher & Educator"

Adrian Shaughnessy came to our school today and gave a lecture. He is a British designer, possibly most know for his book:At least this is how I know him. It's a great book, very clear and full of helpful advice. Plus I just love its title. I think every profession needs such books: "How to be a musician without losing your soul", "How to be a businessman without losing your soul"...

I find design lectures where designers talk purely about their works quite dull, since we could easily see their works on their website/books. They also all say the same thing along the lines of "being a designer's hard, it doesn't make money, but it's fun to do what you like". What I liked about Adrian's lecture was that he touched on what kind of changes this industry is undergoing and what is different/possible now.


Anyway, some points from the lecture:

1) Communication

Story of a guy from Google, who has online meetings with colleagues around the world all the time. He noticed that after meeting face to face, the whole relationship changes completely. Even super digital companies like Google believe in the power of meeting in person, and makes attempt to actually fly and meet people.
i.e. when applying for jobs, never just send pdf off. Go and see them in person. You may not get the job, but the discussion you have will be completely different when met face to face.
Design is a people business. i.e. communicational skill is important.


2) Change of Role

Designers now need to have much more sense of entrepreneurship.
Jobs today won't last long. Designers probably will be changing jobs every few years.
Nowadays it's possible to start independent business (in Adrian's case to start a publisher) to be in control of your creation.
You can just use blog/twitter and people all over the world knows about your work. Instead of paying tons of money to magazine to get an ad on.
Designers are more interested in social issues. Moving on from 'making pretty layouts'.


Apparently there is a radio show every Thursdays where Adrian interviews graphic designers. It's called "Graphic Design on the Radio" and you can listen to the archives here.
http://www.shaughnessyworks.com/