Step Inside the Cosmic House, a London Home Designed to Reflect the Universe
The family home of Charles and Maggie Jencks is a wild experiment in postmodernism—and it just opened to the public for the first time ever.
The historic family home of Charles and Maggie Jencks is a wild experiment in postmodernism—and it just opened to the public for the first time ever.
Standing in contrast to the likes of Mies van der Rohe’s austere modernism is the Cosmic House, a eccentric display of late-’70s kitsch that’s much more than its seemingly overblown aesthetics: Inside are complex symbolic design elements that pay tribute to the cosmos, resulting in one of the most iconic built manifestos of postmodernist architecture.
Now, after a careful restoration in collaboration with the homeowners’ daughter, architect Lily Jencks, a new exhibition invites visitors to immersive themselves in her father’s original vision for the home. On display through August 2022 are selections from Charles Jencks’s archive, which outline the history of the building—originally an 1840s end-of-terrace dwelling—and highlight key influences and collaborations that were critical to the home’s creation.
While the home is at ease in its Holland Park location, it represents a dramatic remodeling of the original home, most clearly from the side and rear. The garden facade features a representation of the family of four—Charles, Maggie, and their two children—through the repeated "Jencksiana" motif around windows and terraces. The modernist grid appears in the window mullions and transoms while between them a stuccoed arch features the ghost of an over-scaled keystone—a mannerist joke on the nature of contemporary architecture and the abandonment of traditional load-bearing responsibilities.
Photography by Sue Barr
Charles, an architectural historian, critic, writer, and designer, became interested and motivated by the relationship between the built environment and the cosmos through his landscape art. For the renovation, which took place between 1978 and 1983, he collaborated with architect Terry Farrell, incorporating design contributions from an all-star roster that included Piers Gough, Eduardo Paolozzi, Michael Graves, and Allen Jones.
"We call the house ‘polyphonic’ as it contains the voices of many designers, and now also mine," says Lily. Famously, designs by architects Rem Koolhaas and Jeremy Dixon were turned down.
Charles and Maggie Jencks talking after giving a joint lecture at École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, 1981. Like Charles, Maggie Keswick Jencks believed that architecture could be uplifting, and she founded the cancer charity, Maggie's, in 1995 when she was diagnosed with cancer. The Maggie's centers have been designed by leading architects, including Frank Gehry, Zaha Hadid, and Richard Rogers.
Photo by Eustachy Kossakowsky, courtesy of the Cosmic House
Although it served as the family home of Charles and Maggie, few, if any, concessions were made for domestication. "While I was growing up, the house was always full of people," says Lily. "My parents lived a busy life, and their social and work circles were completely intertwined, so that dinners were intellectual debates and the sitting room doubled as a lecture hall. It always felt like important conversations were happening around me, which is an exciting way to grow up."
The Solar Stair is a cantilevered concrete spiral in the center of the building, with Eduardo Paolozzi’s Black Hole mosaic at the base. The stair itself represents the solar year, with 52 steps cast in concrete and seven strips to produce a total of 365 grooves inscribed on the risers.
Photography by Sue Barr
See the full story on Dwell.com: Step Inside the Cosmic House, a London Home Designed to Reflect the Universe
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