Like many of architect John Pawson’s best designs, the sophistication of this Bowl is intrinsically tied to its simplicity. Matte black, bronze, and seamless, its weighty double-walled form could easily be read as solid. However, the same double walls that give the Bowl its visual weight create an open cavity in the interior, which is partially filled with sand.1 This simple material acts as a sophisticated weighting system; as the vessel tilts, the sand shifts to magically stabilize its curves at any angle. Upright, the Bowl fulfills its typological duty as a standard container. Leaning deeply, the hemisphere becomes a mystery hiding in plain sight.
This Bowl was part of Pawson’s inaugural series for When Objects Work, a Belgian firm known for architect-designed domestic objects. Pawson’s collection debuted the company’s first year, 2001, although the seeds of the collaboration were planted in 1996 when founder and CEO Beatrice de Lafontaine commissioned the architect to design her kitchen. She then “challenged him . . . to design something that is essential in a home.”2 Pawson answered with five dual-action containers, each rendered in two materials and one geometric form. A double-sided picture frame and a modular acrylic and metal vase were among the designs that joined the obsidian Bowl.3 Each object shared the same rigorous distillation of form that has driven Pawson’s minimalist approach throughout his long career.
Pawson was in his early thirties when he opened his London architecture office in 1981. Several years in Japan mentored by the architect Shiro Kuramata fueled his subsequent training at London’s Architectural Association. However, Pawson departed before earning his degree. Perhaps as a result, his designs have focused not only on the structure of his buildings but also on the life inside them.4
Thus, it is not likely a coincidence that this Bowl’s 2001 debut coincides with the release of Pawson’s cookbook, Living and Eating, coauthored with British food writer Annie Bell. Lauded today for its genre-defining “philosophy of pared-down abundance,” the book bridges exacting kitchen-design advice with recipes including “Radishes with Butter and Sea Salt.”5 This holistic design approach—buildings, bowls, and recipes—brings the idea of the Gesamtkunstwerk to mind, with Pawson’s total environment including the architecture, interiors, and domestic objects as well as what is served in them. —Elizabeth Essner
Notes
1. According to Beatrice de Lafontaine, When Objects Work CEO and founder, water was considered as another option to fill the interior of the bowl, but sand was deemed safer. Email from de Lafontaine to the author, November 6, 2023.
2. Ibid.
3. Pawson’s Bowl was also offered in white and gray in a 15 x 9 cm “little” size.
4. Deyan Sudjic, introduction to John Pawson: Making Life Simpler (London: Phaidon, 2023).
5. Helen Rosner, “A Perfect, and Perfectly Modern, Cookbook That Deserves to Be Reissued,” The New Yorker, August 24, 2018, www.newyorker.com/culture/annals-of-gastronomy/a-perfect-and-perfectly-modern-cookbook-that-deserves-to-be-reissued (accessed November 8, 2023); John Pawson and Annie Bell, Living and Eating (New York: Clarkson Potter, 2001).