The Cosmic House

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The Cosmic House

Photography: Sue Barr.
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The Cosmic House, one of the world’s most important examples of Post-Modern architecture, was designed by Charles Jencks and in collaboration with other Post-Modern architects.

19/06/2026

Join curator and researcher Aurora Tang () on 9 July at the Architectural Association () for an illustrated presentation on revisiting Charles Jencks’ ‘Daydream Houses of Los Angeles’ (1978).

In the 1970s, Jencks photographed Los Angeles’ eccentric vernacular houses, compiling over 60 images into a playful book that invited readers to embark on their own architectural tour. In this presentation, Aurora Tang will discuss her ongoing rephotography project, considering the informal photograph, the enthusiast, the tour, the changing appearance of LA’s residential neighborhoods, and the significance of Jencks’ book today, nearly 50 years after its release.

This event is a collaboration between the AA and The Cosmic House. It forms part of the public programme for the display ‘Aurora Tang: Revisiting Daydream Houses of Los Angeles’ at The Cosmic House, on view until 28 August 2026.

Link to book in bio.

05/06/2026

✨ Chronogramorama ✨

In the hope that it will be useful for researchers, as well as interesting for anyone curious about how ideas and methods evolve, we've made a complete—to the best of our knowledge—timeline of the evolution of Charles Jencks’s Evolutionary Tree, as and where each version appeared. We will update it with any new examples that we find.

The contemporary reflection and, in some sense, evolution of Charles’s methods continues through our multi-year project ‘Chronograms of Architecture’. Beginning with a symposium at the Architectural Association (), an exhibition and talks and workshops at CIVA (.architecture), we have commissioned new chronograms by: Pier Vittorio Aureli / Marson Korbi, Mario Carpo / Mark Garcia, Charles L. Davis II / Curry J. Hackett, Lionel Devlieger / Michaël Ghyoot / Adam Przywara / Karen Steukers / Arne Vande Capelle / Louise Vanhee, Maria Fedorchenko / Yeliz Abdurahman, Urtzi Grau / Francesca Hughes, MOULD, Bryony Roberts / Abriannah Aiken, and Ilze Wolff. Much work remains to be done.

The latest edition of ‘Chronograms of Architecture’ is now open in Johannesburg at the GSA (). Head to the link in bio for more info about the exhibition and to access the full Chronogramorama.

📸 See comments

22/05/2026

Join us at The Cosmic House on 2June for a very special Patrons’ event: Fireside Chat with author Jung Chang CBE in conversation with Chairwoman Lily Jencks (). The evening will begin with a drinks reception, followed by a conversation and a light dinner.

Jung Chang is the acclaimed and bestselling author of 'Wild Swans' (1991) and 'Mao: The Unknown Story' (2005). In this intimate event, Chang will reflect on her writing practice and latest book, 'Fly, Wild Swans' (2025); her long-standing relationship with the Jencks family; and insights into the Chinese aesthetics embedded within The Cosmic House.

Fireside Chats is a series of intimate gatherings at The Cosmic House featuring a diverse range of speakers, followed by a light dinner. Created especially for The Cosmic House Patrons, these events are only occasionally opened to the wider public when limited spaces become available.

Head to the link in bio to book tickets for this special event.

📸 Jung Chang. Photo by Zhang Xiaohong.

12/05/2026

✨ Terry Farrell was born on this day in 1924 ✨

Sir Terry Farrell worked closely with Maggie and Charles Jencks on the design of The Cosmic House, resolving the complex spatial and structural features of the house. Decades later, Farrell and Charles collaborated again on ‘Landform’ at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art in Edinburgh. Inspired by concepts in fractal geometry and chaos theory, the work was Charles’ first commissioned landscape and formed part of Farrell’s overall redesign of the gallery. ‘Landform’ went on to win the Gulbenkian Prize for Museum of the Year in 2004.

📸 All images from The Cosmic House collection
1. Euda with drawings [CJA-EDH-7-5]
2. Euda_02.jpg [CJA-EDH-7-6]
3. Euda steps.jpg [CJA-EDH-7-4]
4. Euda Steps & Seats.jpg [CJA-EDH-7-3]

01/05/2026

This National Space day, we’re publishing the first of a two part commission in which artist and researcher Jamie Allen () elaborates on the idea of ‘cosmic withdrawal’ as a cultural and architectural tradition of selectively blocking out the universe.

Part two of the commission will explore cyclical forms, chronograms, and cosmogenic patterns, themes and generative languages of the temporal, diagrammatic variety; the kind of conceptual, transferable representations championed by Charles Jencks throughout his work for describing—and described as—Post-Modern.

Head to the link in our bio to read the full article.

24/04/2026

✨ Happy Birthday Piers Gough ✨

Piers Gough designed the Dome of Water, one of the most spectacular spaces in The Cosmic House. Thinking that a dome would make a great whirlpool bath, he looked through Charles Jencks' slides of Roman domes to find the one that would look best upside down. He chose Francesco Borromini’s dome for the Baroque church of San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane, joking that he "put the borrow into Borromini".

📸
1. Piers Gough, Designs for the Dome of Water, Undated (c. 1978-1984).
2. The Dome of Water at The Cosmic House. Photo by Sue Barr.

14/04/2026

✨ The wisteria is in full bloom this National Gardening Day ✨

Today, we celebrate the Time Garden of The Cosmic House and its keepers, Flo Main () and Gareth Barker (). They have been observing and tending to the garden’s practical and symbolic elements, in this collaborative act that is gardening.

📸 All photos by Flo.

10/04/2026

Beyond its role as a manifesto for Post-Modernism, The Cosmic House was built as a family home for Charles and Maggie Jencks. Our archive features many domestic moments celebrating everyday life.

Click the link in bio to access our collection catalogue.

📸 Slides from The Cosmic House collection
1. Cooking in the Indian Summer kitchen [CJA-TCH-b-28-45]
2. Using the Jencksiana-shaped chopping board [CJA-TCH-b-28-30]
3. Preparing mushrooms [CJA-TCH-b-28-17]
4. Ironing in the Autumn Room [CJA-TCH-b-28-42]
5. A hamper on the Sun Chair [CJA-TCH-b-28-40]
6. Painting the Summer Room [CJA-TCH-b-29-25]
7. The Sun Table set for dinner [CJA-TCH-b-28-3]

03/04/2026

The Cosmic House is full of hidden details, from symbolic eggs to visual puns, architectural references, and many more.

Here are some of our team’s favourites. Can you find all these details woven into the design of the house? How many can you spot? (Answers below).

Finding these features is central to exploring The Cosmic House, a continuation of Charles Jencks’ own ‘Hunt the Symbol’ game in his understanding of Symbolic Architecture (link in bio to learn more).

📸
Photos 1 and 2: The Cosmic Egg in the ceiling of the Cosmic Oval entrance
Photos 3 and 4: Models of The Cosmic House on the counter of the Indian Summer kitchen
Photos 5 and 6: Springs on the lamps in the Spring room
Photos 7 and 8: Miniature pagoda in the stone landscape on the Michael Graves fireplace of the Winter room
Photos 9 and 10: Model of The Cosmic House at the top of the wood-like structure of the Amphitheatre entrance
Photos 11 and 12: Obelisk and pyramid in the armchairs of the Winter room

27/03/2026

✨ A lovely Jencksiana film strip from the archive ✨

Charles Jencks’ interest in symbols, signs and semiotics led him to design the Jencksiana, a flexible motif resembling an abstracted human face that is repeated in different variations throughout The Cosmic House. The curved elements and a stagger combine to create a suggestion of a forehead, eyes and a chin. This personal motif – modelled on the Serlian window – returns in various versions and scales throughout the interiors and exteriors of the house, framing windows, doors, furniture, or the corners of rooms below the ceilings. As its name suggests, it was designed both as Charles’ personal trademark and as an anthropomorphic symbol, giving the building a face to look back at its inhabitant.

We add new material to our collection catalogue every week, click the link in bio to check it out!

📸 Photo from The Cosmic House collection [CJA-TCH-a-23-23].

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