A conversation with architect John Pawson

A British cliché: un­der­state­ment. And proof of how true this cliché is: John Pawson. The ar­chi­tect from London is not just known for his quiet, con­cen­trated build­ings, which only reveal how much effort has gone into them at second glance.
He himself also relies on being a dis­creet pres­ence in the back­ground. But he knows how to spice this quiet pres­ence up with his equally typical sharp British wit.

You just con­verted a Berlin bunker into an ex­hi­bi­tion build­ing for the Désiré Feuerle col­lec­tion. What was the hardest part about this project?

There wasn’t a spe­cific thing. The hardest part was the sheer size of the build­ing. It is really huge. So we had to be careful with our plan­ning de­ci­sions, fi­nan­cially speak­ing. For example, we had to think care­fully about where we wanted to make cut-outs in the walls.

The walls are made of two-me­tre-thick re­in­forced con­crete. It takes two weeks to drill through it. That puts quite a heavy strain on the budget. For­tu­nately, we didn’t need that many cut-outs. Routing through the build­ing was quite easy.

What did you change during the con­ver­sion?

It was clear to me from the start that we would leave the build­ing as-is. I liked it that way. The shape, the pro­por­tions, the con­crete, it’s all won­der­ful, so mon­u­men­tal and massive. But of course it had to be cleaned and, above all, dried. There’s a lot of water in the bunker. That is not com­pat­i­ble with art. On the ground floor we put in white walls on the long sides, behind which there are heating and de­hu­mid­i­fy­ing systems.

Another issue was light­ing. We de­vel­oped the light­ing concept and the in­stal­la­tion of the sculp­tures in close col­lab­o­ra­tion with Désiré Feuerle.

For a bunker, the build­ing has a very open floor plan.

Yes, because it wasn’t built for people, but pri­mar­ily for ma­chines and telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions systems. It is also nice that there is an above-ground level and an un­der­ground level.

There are even windows in the facade on the ground floor, so you can see how thick the walls really are. But we sealed them. Natural day­light would not have been com­pat­i­ble with the mys­ti­cal staging of the art.

Do you think it was a good idea to have a private art col­lec­tion here?

Yes! I im­me­di­ately fell in love with the build­ing. And I found Désiré’s vision so in­cred­i­ble and bold. When I was here for the first time, I could already see how the rooms would look cleaned and with art on display. Today, however, I am some­times amazed at how we did it, in ret­ro­spect. If I had known...

Can you say some­thing about working with Désiré Feuerle, what the plan­ning process was like?

I am very lucky with my clients because they are in­ter­est­ing per­son­al­i­ties and I learn a lot from them. I can also listen better today than I used to. Maybe now I have more time and pa­tience for it. Each of our pro­jects, be it a private home, a museum or a hotel, is created in close col­lab­o­ra­tion with the client.

Of course they want us to tailor an ar­chi­tec­tural vision for them. That’s why every project is dif­fer­ent; the client makes the dif­fer­ence. Désiré is really ob­sessed and pas­sion­ate; he’s driven by the sculp­tures and their story. By col­lect­ing and ex­hibit­ing them.

And how did the col­lab­o­ra­tion with FSB come about? Did that happen during the con­ver­sion?

Yes. Of course, I knew FSB and had used the fit­tings in pre­vi­ous pro­jects. Désiré wanted some­thing special for the col­lec­tion, a sig­na­ture piece. Because people always ask me, ‘What were you doing here anyway?’

Well, we did a lot, but you just don’t see it. The door handle is a kind of emblem for the build­ing. We took a his­tor­i­cal model for the design and revised it and gave it this really beau­ti­ful bronze finish. The colour es­tab­lishes the con­nec­tion to some of the Chinese objects on display.

Why did you choose to revise the Re­ichs­form handle by Hans Poelzig?

Because it has one of the sim­plest forms. On the one hand it is almost nakedly simple, but on the other hand it is soft, almost poetic.

I like to have it in my hand. You don’t want to let go of it. I think it was Gunnar Asplund who once said that your first en­counter with a build­ing is the moment you put your hand on the handle of the en­trance door. Learn more about the bunker con­ver­sion in a closer look at the project in FSB’s ref­er­ence port­fo­lio.