John Pawson - Leçons du Thoronet
Le Thoronet Abbey, Provence
6th May - October 2006
Le Thoronet Abbey, Provence
6th May - October 2006
Examining the
influence the twelfth century Cistercian abbey has had on the
development of John Pawson’s thought and work, Leçons du Thoronet has the distinction of being the first exhibition to be mounted within the
precincts of Le Thoronet Abbey in Provence.
Drawing on Le Corbusier’s description of the abbey as a building where
every detail ‘represents a principle of creative architecture’, the
exhibition isolates fourteen viewpoints, each selected to illustrate
a particular ‘principle’, ranging from notions of context, landscape,
circulation and order to the use of light, mass, junction, surface,
repetition, rhythm, geometry, vista, scale and proportion.
As a physical entity Leçons comprised simply a book and fourteen benches. Visitors followed a route around the site, pausing at each of the benches to contemplate a particular view. The accompanying catalogue - now published as an independent title - interwove these viewpoints with a second set of images drawn from John Pawson’s own archive, tracing the thematic continuities linking Le Thoronet’s exemplary expressions of mass and light with the ongoing quest for simplicity in architecture.
As a physical entity Leçons comprised simply a book and fourteen benches. Visitors followed a route around the site, pausing at each of the benches to contemplate a particular view. The accompanying catalogue - now published as an independent title - interwove these viewpoints with a second set of images drawn from John Pawson’s own archive, tracing the thematic continuities linking Le Thoronet’s exemplary expressions of mass and light with the ongoing quest for simplicity in architecture.