At Home With John Pawson

from est Magazine Issue #41 | Collect & Curate

The Library

At Home With John Pawson

One look at British designer John Pawson’s Instagram account, with its staggering 369k followers, reveals one of his passions to be photography. The feed is a celebration of light and its effect on materials, landscape, interiors and buildings, there are few words and only intermittently featured is his lock-down puppy – a cockapoo named Lochie. “Although the aesthetic strands running through my work are pretty consistent, the influences feeding into the design process are typically eclectic and even the most unlikely subjects can provide food for thought,” he says.

DESIGN | John Pawson PHOTOGRAPHY | Gilbert McCarragher LOCATION | Cotswolds, England WORDS | Karen McCartney

**Guests at Home Farm are seated on CH24 Wishbone Chairs by Hans J. Wegner.**

Of late the images focus on Home Farm, their country property located in the Cotswolds, which forms the backdrop to a new cookbook, a collaborative production with his wife Catherine, simply named Home Farm Cooking. Once a derelict series of rural buildings including a 17th-century farmhouse, cottage, stables, a barn and pigsties sprouting giant hogweed, there has been a complete shedding of generations of detritus, an architectural paring back combined with a considered material insertion and careful planning of spatial flow. The connection of the farmhouse and barn creates a 50-metre span and so a kitchen was installed at each end to serve different purposes at different times of year and for varying occasions. A small-scale traditional kitchen with pantry in the farmhouse (cosy in winter) and a larger, more open kitchen in the converted barn which suits large groups of family and friends, especially in summer. A third kitchen is in the guest quarters, in the wainhouse (originally for wagons and carts). “Long before the work was finished, four generations of our family had sat down to eat together at the table in the barn and the list of significant occasions that have been celebrated here lengthens from month to month,” Catherine says.

**The Single Day Bed 32 byiconic designer Donald Juddin the living space.**

John Pawson is often referred to as a minimalist which can be misleading. His spare and reductive aesthetic is imbued with the warmth of his nuanced material palette and a carefully calibrated sense of space and light ensures beauty is omnipresent.

“We found an aggregate that is local, so it’s similar colours to the Cotswold stone, although it’s modern concrete and it bands,” he said. “We put down a concrete terrazzo floor that was the same greys.” Elm, a timber originally used in the house was sourced, breathable lime plaster covers walls and furnishings throughout are restrained and beautiful - from Hans Wegner’s CH24 Wishbone chairs to a Swedish Gustavian sofa sourced by Catherine.

This is the background against which the 100 recipes featured in the book are shot – seasonally themed – positioned in beautiful light with just enough propping (often with platters and utensils designed by Pawson for When Objects Work) to seduce with the honesty of the ingredients and their unaffected presentation.

Placing value on simplicity is not only an aesthetic choice, it is an expression of an entire philosophy of living.

– John Pawson

“I think that Catherine and I look at a beautiful piece of stone, timber or fish and essentially have the same response, which is that when a material or ingredient is perfect, do as little as possible to compromise or distract from that perfection. Placing value on simplicity is not only an aesthetic choice, it is an expression of an entire philosophy of living,” he says.

**The timber-clad attic bedroom features a Møller #80A bench.**

While John creates the context, Catherine is the cook and her words introducing each chapter are wonderfully evocative in setting the scene for the season.

“I love going out into the woods and hedgerows, to forage for wild garlic or blackberries, depending on the time of year. And being in the heart of agricultural landscape, you are so much more aware of the arrival of new lambs and the planting and harvesting of the various grain and vegetable crops,” she says.

During the weeks and months of the various lockdowns the UK has experienced the Pawsons have been totally immersed in Home Farm, by the architecture itself and by the surrounding countryside. “You find yourself quietly observing the house,” he notes, “the way the light moves across a section of wall in the course of the day – but there is also a sense of being reciprocally watched over by the house, as the new routines and rituals of everyday life become more deeply engrained.”

Catherine and John Pawson’s Home Farm Cooking is published by Phaidon Press.

Saffron Chicken Tagine with Dried Fruits

This is the most famous of all Moroccan dishes, traditionally cooked slowly in an earthenware tagine pot over an open fire. Any meat can be used, but lamb or chicken is the most commonly found versions. If like me, you do not own a tagine pot, any wide, shallow pot with a tightfitting lid will work equally well. This is a dish you can prepare the day before to allow the spices to infuse and intensify. I serve it with bread, rice or couscous to mop up the juices. It is gluten-free if you serve it with rice.

Preparation time: 20 minutes | Cooking time: 1 hour 25 minutes | Serves: 6

Ingredients

– 1 tablespoon olive oil

– 3 onions, coarsely chopped

– 4 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped

– 3 tablespoons ras-el-hanout

– 1 teaspoon ground cumin seeds

– 1 teaspoon ground coriander

– 1 teaspoon ground ginger

– 1 large organic free-range chicken (about 1.5 kg / 31⁄4 lb), jointed

– 2 preserved lemons, chopped

– 3 pinches of saffron strands steeped in 1 tablespoon of boiling water for 20 minutes

– 200 ml / 7 fl oz (3⁄4 cup plus 1 tablespoon) chicken stock (broth)

– 50 g / 2 oz (1⁄3 cup) Iranian sultanas (golden raisins) or others if these are not available

– 50 g / 2 oz (¹⁄3 cup) stoned (pitted) and coarsely chopped soft prunes

– 50 g / 2 oz (¹⁄3 cup) dried apricots

– 100 g / 31⁄2 oz (1 cup) stoned (pitted) green olives

– sea salt and black pepper

To Serve:

– 50 g / 2 oz (1⁄2 cup) flaked (slivered) almonds, toasted

– large handful of chopped coriander (cilantro), to garnish

Method:

– Flatbreads, rice or couscous

Heat the olive oil in a large, heavy saucepan or casserole dish over medium heat, add the onions and garlic and sauté for about 5 minutes until soft and translucent. Add all the dry spices and sauté for another 5 minutes, then add the chicken pieces and stir to coat them in the onions and spices. Allow the chicken pieces to brown skin side down, turning the pieces after about 5 minutes to brown the other side. Stir in the preserved lemons and the saffron and steeping water. Pour in the stock (broth), cover and cook over low heat for 1 hour.

While the chicken is cooking, soak the sultanas (golden raisins) in boiling water in a small heatproof bowl. Put the rest of the dried fruit into a small saucepan, cover with water and bring to a boil. Drain the fruit and stir it into the chicken with the olives. Cook for another 5 minutes and season well with salt and pepper.

Sprinkle the flaked (slivered) almonds and chopped coriander (cilantro) on top of the chicken and serve with flatbreads, rice or couscous to absorb the juices.