Historian, critic, architect and then landscape architect. The multifaceted, postmodernist legacy of Charles Jencks will open to the public in September 2021, thanks to a project to convert his Cosmic House – a private home in London’s Holland Park – into an exhibition and archive space, which will host a rich program of exhibitions, lectures and residencies.
Cosmic House, the eccentric residence of Charles Jencks opens to the public
The historian’s London post-modernist residence reopens to the public as an exhibition space, with a rich program of exhibitions, lectures and residencies.
Photo ©Sue Barr
Photo ©Sue Barr
Photo ©Sue Barr
Photo ©Sue Barr
Photo ©Sue Barr
Photo ©Sue Barr
Photo ©Sue Barr
Photo ©Sue Barr
Photo ©Sue Barr
Photo ©Sue Barr
Photo ©Sue Barr
Photo ©Sue Barr
Photo ©Sue Barr
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- Romina Totaro
- 05 July 2021
- London, UK
- Charles Jencks, Maggie Jencks and Terry Farrell
- museum and archive
- 1978
Although he was born in the United States, specifically in Baltimore, Charles Jencks moved to London to study, where he then moved permanently. Started in 1978, the Cosmic House is a project of conversion of a Victorian villa. The historian and his wife Maggie Jencks collaborated with architect Terry Farrel, boasting contributions and works by Piers Gough, Eduardo Paolozzi, Michael Graves, Allen Jones, among others. The residence’s postmodernist design references a complex web of iconography and cosmic references: a manifesto of Post Modernism, rich, kitschy and endlessly inventive.
The Jencks Foundation brings forward the legacy of the historian’s provocative work and will promote cultural laboratory critical experimentation in historical, artistic, and scientific research through fellowships and residencies and a related program of exhibitions, lectures, and publications. “My parents designed the Cosmic House as
a playful polemic” explains Lily Jencks, daughter of Charles and Meggie Jancks and co-designer of the new gallery. “With the Jencks Foundation we hope it will continue to provoke the cultural conversation, and provide a platform for those engaging with the broadest and deepest meaning in architecture”.
The Garden facade with a representation of the family of four through the repeated ‘Jencksiana’ motif
The new Exhibition Room with the evolution of scientific representations of the sun in the ceiling lights, looking out to the Time Garden, with a malachite floor and sculpture by Charles and Lily Jencks of the sun and earth above
The Dome of Water is a jacuzzi designed by Piers Gough, adapted and inverted from dome by Borromini
The Solar Stair is a cantilever concrete spiral with Eduardo Paolozzi’s Black Hole mosaic at the base
The Cosmic Oval at the entrance sets up the major and minor themes that visitors will find throughout the house
The Winter Room has a fireplace designed by Michael Graves with Celia Scott’s bust of Hephaestus looking over the room with Chinese Scholar’s Rocks solid dynamics replacing the fire’s flames. The view shows the layering of space with views into the Spring, Summer and Autumn rooms
The Spring Room with fireplace designed by Michael Graves, crowned with female representations of the 3 months of spring by Penelope Jencks
The Sundial Room faces south over the garden the room with radial seating around a sundial
The Four Square Room is Charles and Maggies bedroom with many iterations of the subdivided square motif with mirrors and split levels creating spatial jokes and ambiguities
The Architectural Library is Charles’ study with a tent-like roof painted to be like the sky, with its ‘City of Books’ designed by Charles so that each bookshelf relates to the thematic style or individual architect whose books are collected therein
The Architectural Library
The Architectural Library
The Solar Stair