I had forgotten that I had taken a photograph of one of the odder aspects of John Pawson’s Life House which is a room at the end of a dark corridor where one is encouraged to lie and contemplate one’s fate, inspired by a quotation from Pascal carved into the floor: ALL MEN’S MISERIES DERIVE FROM NOT BEING ABLE TO SIT IN A QUIET ROOM ALONE.

I’m not sure that this is exactly how I would choose to spend a weekend in the countryside, immured in a windowless cell:-