John Pawson was born in 1949 in Halifax, Yorkshire. After visiting the studio of Japanese architect and designer Shiro Kuramata, he enrolled at the Architecture Association in London, leaving to establish his practice in 1981. From the outset, Pawson’s work has focused on ways of approaching fundamental problems of space, proportion, light, and materials – themes he also explored in his book Minimum, which examines the notion of simplicity in art, architecture, and design across a variety of historical and cultural contexts.