Recognize Real Modernity...for the better future

Lawson-Westen House, Eric Owen Moss 1993

Modernization starts with a sudden realization, acceptance and acknowledgement of a consciousness that a typical civilization believes a certain monumental stage is reached. At the same time, it is a complete break from conventional ideas, methods and logics. However, modernity is also a constant destruction of the old, creating a transition in psychology. Likewise, each of man’s creations and inventions is momentary in history. Modernization is constantly changing for the better, fueled by technological advances and new ideas, but it is always a fugitive recognition of the past. Thus, the blended aggregate of new and old creations and ideas coexist to define modernity.

I sense the logic of this modernity in the Lawson-Westen House in Brentwood, California, designed by Eric Owen Moss (a famous modern architect) in 1993. Moss created an interior with a cathedral-like atrium design. Integrated into the rectangular floor plan, a cone becomes the roof shape of the cylindrical kitchen and it becomes the vortex of the house that almost as if generating energy to the rest of the spaces in the house. In the open floor plan, the kitchen opens up to the dining room, the living room, the playroom and the garden, which allowed communication and observation between each occupant. Although Moss’s design is one of the outrageous one from the outside, his concept is actually very similar to Frank Lloyd Wright’s perspective on planning design. His spatial design is desired for a consolidation of rooms rather than a series of small ones.

The aesthetic and harmony of the interior spaces interfused by the circular kitchen in the Lawson-Westen House is not just an inheritance from the past but, indeed, the continuity design from Frank Lloyd Wright who used walls to connect space movements horizontally. However, the Moss’ intention on spatial control is more innovative by moving the viewers’ attention vertically. Even more, the idea of framed to capture views of outdoor landscape appeared to be the essential elements for both architects. Moss, however, did the job in a more superior way by turning the views not only to the outdoor but also towards the interior.