Lifestore
Marks & Spencer
Gateshead 2004
The John Pawson House was designed specifically for the Gateshead
Lifestore. Characteristically the design explores how architecture may
be shaped around rituals of use rather than conventions of form and
draws on the essential Pawson vocabulary of wide floorboards, quiet
white walls, floating benches, the shadow gap, floor-to-ceiling glazing
with minimal frames, the optimal treatment of light and a restricted
palette of natural materials.
With the design of the store itself, the emphasis again falls on
creating an environment based not on convention – in this instance the
conventions of retail – but on the desire to optimise the rituals of
use.