PAOLA GIACONIA
Considered one of the leading in American experimental architecture, Eric Owen Moss is also one of the most interesting figures in the contemporary international debate. The boldness of his projects, the way in which they allow for contingencies and leave space for the occurrence of a new, provisional order, and his profound desire to always put himself to the test and to constantyle look for possible cultural cross-fertilisations allow Moss to put into practice what he provocatively defines as the Penelope theory of architecture: like Odysseus´s faithful wife, who at nigh undid the shroud she wove during the day, so is the architect who, when he designs, makes something and dismantles it simultaneously.
It is impossible, by examining his work chronologically, to find an evolutionary logic to it. Even within the so-called L.A. School, Moss is and unnusual and atypical character who, since his early works, stands out from the other protagonistis of Los Angeles architecture of his own generation, which immediately followed Frank O. Gehry´s early works. We can consider the series of constructions he completed in Culver City as one of the most successful experiments in building the contemporary city piece by piece, and surely one of the urban planning attempts which best relates to its original contex.
