Minimum - Mini Edition (Phaidon Miniature Editions)
Architect John Pawson delves into all aspects of minimalism in  this compact (five-by-five-inch) but thick (325-page) format. ReadingMinimumis almost like sitting in a slide lecture given by a  passionate professor of pared-down design. It is a picture book  primarily, and Pawson's choice of images is personal and quirky. His  chapter headings refer to many sources and aspects of design: Mass,  Light, Structure, Ritual, Landscape, Order, Containment, Repetition,  Volume, Essence, and Expression. The pictures in each section range from  sculptures and paintings to landscapes to ritual objects to rooms to  colonnades and piazzas, cityscapes and private homes. Pawson's  selections are evocative, but not always effective. One caption reads,  "The intense luminescence of Mark Rothko's painting," but the picture  shown is one of Rothko's late, dark, depressed canvasses, which at  three-by-five-inches seems more a smudge than a glow. Images dominate  this book, but Pawson has also written an ardent introductory essay that  places his selections in context. "What I look for is the excitement of  empty space," he writes. "It has the capacity to bring architecture  alive, just as it does a Chinese scroll painting. Emptiness allows us to  see space as it is, to see architecture as it is, preventing it from  being corrupted, or hidden, by the incidental debris of the  paraphernalia of everyday life. It offers the space, both psychological  and physical, for contemplation, and the serenity that can encourage  meditative quiet and calm, without the jarring distraction of  possessions."--Peggy Moorman