It’s not every day that you get the chance to rent a bona fide architectural classic but that’s exactly what’s on offer over at The Modern House at the moment.

The beautiful Tilty Hill Barn, designed by über minimalist John Pawson, is a gorgeous essay in finely-honed simplicity: plain white walls, cool glass panels, polished floors and rectilinear shapes are set against the wonderfully gnarled integrity of the original timber beams.

The end result is a contemplative and Zen like space – exactly the kind of effect for which Pawson is most famous. But there’s nothing cold and sterile about this house. 

Minimalism, as Pawson has explained, is not about there being nothing there; it’s about returning to, and celebrating, the very essence of things: space, light, and the defining qualities of a few carefully chosen materials (stone, glass, timber, plaster, metal).

To some it’s a rigorous and severe aesthetic, but for Pawson the crispness and clarity of the minimalist space is a form of liberation.

“It was a sense of the oppressive weight of possessions that gave me my first taste for simplicity,” he notes in his collection of musings on the subject.

“The minimum is the perfection an artefact achieves when it is no longer possible to improve it by subtraction.”

Tilty Hill Barn has appeared in numerous publications and has been the subject of a book, Barn, by Pawson and his client, the photographer Fi McGhee.

If you can’t abide clutter and love cutting-edge contemporary design,  it’s yours for the renting for £3,500 pcm.  Click pics for full details.

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