London Column at The Cosmic House

Jencks’ order of columns, the London Column is a key motif that recurs throughout the interior and exterior of The Cosmic House. The chimneys that form the columns on the west façade of the house, and the pair of columns in the Spring Room have an opening at the top – ‘a sunburst’. The columns inside the house feature a shell-shaped light imitating sunlight, while also holding bookcases and speakers, and ‘rain’ is articulated in vertical lines. Their symbolic programme is based on Jencks’ observation that in London ‘everybody talks about the weather but no one does anything about it'. Both sets of columns hold up nothing but the sky, asserting their ultimately decorative nature and separating form from function.