Exhibition

Tai Shani: The World to Me Was a Secret: Caesious, Zinnober, Celadon, and Virescent

The Cosmic House

1 May20 December 2024

A new site-specific commission by Turner Prize-winning artist Tai Shani responds to the unique context of The Cosmic House and traces the connections between the artist’s thinking and that of Charles Jencks. Shani writes: “This is a dream, a synchronous opportunity to further extend the shared sensibilities and themes that run through the house, Jencks’ vision and thinking, and my own.”

Exhibition

Sonia Leimer: Cosmic Dust

The Cosmic House

2 October 202412 September 2025

Vienna-based artist Sonia Leimer’s exhibition ‘Cosmic Dust‘ will open to the public in October 2024. In response to the themes of The Cosmic House and building on her previous research, Leimer has been collecting dust from the roof of the house museum. Working with the support of the Natural History Museum in Vienna, Leimer analysed the collected material, uncovering a fascinating array of particles including some ‘cosmic dust’.

Adam Knight: Jencksianagram

2 October20 December 2024

For the past year, artist Adam Knight has methodically viewed every one of the thousands of slides in the Slidescrapers. Drawn to The Cosmic House’s recurring motif of mirrors, Knight identified near-duplicates in the archive and used them to assemble stereograms – a pair of almost identical two-dimensional images displayed side-by-side in a stereoscopic viewer, which the brain perceives as a three-dimensional image. Since these images would have been taken by Charles sequentially, the resulting accidental stereograms potentially allow us to not only perceive an additional third dimension, but also the fourth dimension of time. The stereograms are experienced through Cosmic Viewers, designed by Knight and inspired by the Jencksiana symbol, itself based on the human face. Each viewer is wrapped in variations of the Architectural Library’s hand-painted wood effects and designated according to the seasons, in line with the calendar theme of The Cosmic House.

Past Events

Tour

Guided Tour of The Cosmic House

The Cosmic House

2.00 – 3.30 pm, 25 November 2024

Please join us on the 25 of November for a guided tour of The Cosmic House. The Cosmic House, one of the world’s most important examples of Post-Modern architecture, opened to the public in September 2021. Situated in London’s Holland Park, it became the UK’s first Grade I listed Post-Modern interior. Begun in 1978, the conversion of the house was a collaboration between Charles and Maggie Jencks and the architect Terry Farrell with contributions from Piers Gough, Eduardo Paolozzi, Michael Graves, Celia Scott, Allen Jones and others. Its symbolic architecture, complex iconography and cosmic references are all imbued with Charles’ characteristic learning and wit.

Tour

Guided Tour of The Cosmic House

The Cosmic House

2 pm – 3:30 pm, 14 October 2024

Please join us on the 14th of October for a guided tour of The Cosmic House. The Cosmic House, one of the world’s most important examples of Post-Modern architecture, opened to the public in September 2021. Situated in London’s Holland Park, it became the UK’s first Grade I listed Post-Modern interior. Begun in 1978, the conversion of the house was a collaboration between Charles and Maggie Jencks and the architect Terry Farrell with contributions from Piers Gough, Eduardo Paolozzi, Michael Graves, Celia Scott, Allen Jones and others. Its symbolic architecture, complex iconography and cosmic references are all imbued with Charles’ characteristic learning and wit.

Tour

Guided Tour of The Cosmic House

The Cosmic House

2.00 – 3.30 pm, 9 September 2024

Please join us on the 9th of September for a guided tour of The Cosmic House. The Cosmic House, one of the world’s most important examples of Post-Modern architecture, opened to the public in September 2021. Situated in London’s Holland Park, it became the UK’s first Grade I listed Post-Modern interior. Begun in 1978, the conversion of the house was a collaboration between Charles and Maggie Jencks and the architect Terry Farrell with contributions from Piers Gough, Eduardo Paolozzi, Michael Graves, Celia Scott, Allen Jones and others. Its symbolic architecture, complex iconography and cosmic references are all imbued with Charles’ characteristic learning and wit.

Tour

Guided Tour of The Cosmic House

The Cosmic House

2 – 3:30 pm, 19 August 2024

Please join us on the 19th of August for a guided tour of The Cosmic House. The Cosmic House, one of the world’s most important examples of Post-Modern architecture, opened to the public in September 2021. Situated in London’s Holland Park, it became the UK’s first Grade I listed Post-Modern interior. Begun in 1978, the conversion of the house was a collaboration between Charles and Maggie Jencks and the architect Terry Farrell with contributions from Piers Gough, Eduardo Paolozzi, Michael Graves, Celia Scott, Allen Jones and others. Its symbolic architecture, complex iconography and cosmic references are all imbued with Charles’ characteristic learning and wit.

Tour

Guided Tour of The Cosmic House

The Cosmic House

2.00 – 3:30 pm, 22 July 2024

Please join us on the 22 of July for a guided tour of The Cosmic House. The Cosmic House, one of the world’s most important examples of Post-Modern architecture, opened to the public in September 2021. Situated in London’s Holland Park, it became the UK’s first Grade I listed Post-Modern interior. Begun in 1978, the conversion of the house was a collaboration between Charles and Maggie Jencks and the architect Terry Farrell with contributions from Piers Gough, Eduardo Paolozzi, Michael Graves, Celia Scott, Allen Jones and others. Its symbolic architecture, complex iconography and cosmic references are all imbued with Charles’ characteristic learning and wit.

Tour

Guided Tour of The Cosmic House

The Cosmic House

2.00 – 3.30 pm, 24 June 2024

Please join us on the 24 of June for a guided tour of The Cosmic House. The Cosmic House, one of the world’s most important examples of Post-Modern architecture, opened to the public in September 2021. Situated in London’s Holland Park, it became the UK’s first Grade I listed Post-Modern interior. Begun in 1978, the conversion of the house was a collaboration between Charles and Maggie Jencks and the architect Terry Farrell with contributions from Piers Gough, Eduardo Paolozzi, Michael Graves, Celia Scott, Allen Jones and others. Its symbolic architecture, complex iconography and cosmic references are all imbued with Charles’ characteristic learning and wit.

Tour

Guided Tour of The Cosmic House

The Cosmic House

2 – 3:30 pm, 20 May 2024

Please join us on the 20th of May for a guided tour of The Cosmic House. The Cosmic House, one of the world’s most important examples of Post-Modern architecture, opened to the public in September 2021. Situated in London’s Holland Park, it became the UK’s first Grade I listed Post-Modern interior. Begun in 1978, the conversion of the house was a collaboration between Charles and Maggie Jencks and the architect Terry Farrell with contributions from Piers Gough, Eduardo Paolozzi, Michael Graves, Celia Scott, Allen Jones and others. Its symbolic architecture, complex iconography and cosmic references are all imbued with Charles’ characteristic learning and wit.

Lecture

RIBA Charles Jencks Award - 2023 Winner

Royal Institute of British Architects

6 – 9 pm, 16 May 2024

The Jencks Foundation at The Cosmic House and the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) are pleased to announce Dogma, a Brussels-based practice focused on the relationship between architecture and the city, as the 2023 recipient of the Charles Jencks Award.

Tour

Curator-led Tour of The Cosmic House

The Cosmic House

2.30 – 4 pm, 11 December 2023

Please join us on the 11th of December for a curator-led tour of The Cosmic House. The Cosmic House, one of the world’s most important examples of Post-Modern architecture, opened to the public in September 2021. Situated in London’s Holland Park, it became the UK’s first Grade I listed Post-Modern interior. Begun in 1978, the conversion of the house was a collaboration between Charles and Maggie Jencks and the architect Terry Farrell with contributions from Piers Gough, Eduardo Paolozzi, Michael Graves, Celia Scott, Allen Jones and others. Its symbolic architecture, complex iconography and cosmic references are all imbued with Charles’ characteristic learning and wit.

Talk

Artist Talk: Monica Narula from Raqs Media Collective

The Photographers' Gallery

6:30 - 7:45 pm, 7 December 2023

In conversation with Eszter Steierhoffer (Director, Jencks Foundation), Raqs Media Collective member Monica Narula discusses their new film commission and exhibition 1980 in Parallax on view at The Cosmic House until 23 December 2023. The conversation will evolve around a particular year, and touch upon perceptions of time and geography, fact and fiction. As part of the event, we will also screen The Bicyclist Who Fell into a Time Cone. Produced in partnership with Jencks Foundation at the Cosmic House

Talk

Panel discussion: 1980 in Parallax

British Pavilion, Venice Biennale

2:30 - 5 pm, 23 November 2023

Our editorial project ‘1980 in Parallax‘, which explores notions and examples of Post-Modernism outside the Western context, will culminate in a screening and panel discussion on the 23rd of November, in the British Pavilion at the 18th International Architecture Exhibition at the Venice Biennale, in conjunction with the exhibition, ‘Dancing Before the Moon‘.

Tour

Curator-led Tour of The Cosmic House

The Cosmic House

2.30 – 4 pm, 20 November 2023

Please join us on the 20th of November for a curator-led tour of The Cosmic House. The Cosmic House, one of the world’s most important examples of Post-Modern architecture, opened to the public in September 2021. Situated in London’s Holland Park, it became the UK’s first Grade I listed Post-Modern interior. Begun in 1978, the conversion of the house was a collaboration between Charles and Maggie Jencks and the architect Terry Farrell with contributions from Piers Gough, Eduardo Paolozzi, Michael Graves, Celia Scott, Allen Jones and others. Its symbolic architecture, complex iconography and cosmic references are all imbued with Charles’ characteristic learning and wit.

Tour

Curator-led Tour of The Cosmic House

The Cosmic House

2.00 – 3.30 pm, 23 October 2023

Please join us on the 23rd of October for a curator-led tour of The Cosmic House. The Cosmic House, one of the world’s most important examples of Post-Modern architecture, opened to the public in September 2021. Situated in London’s Holland Park, it became the UK’s first Grade I listed Post-Modern interior. Begun in 1978, the conversion of the house was a collaboration between Charles and Maggie Jencks and the architect Terry Farrell with contributions from Piers Gough, Eduardo Paolozzi, Michael Graves, Celia Scott, Allen Jones and others. Its symbolic architecture, complex iconography and cosmic references are all imbued with Charles’ characteristic learning and wit.

EXHIBITION

Chronograms of Architecture

Architectural Association

20 October9 December 2023

The exhibition in the AA Front Members’ Room features contributions by Pier Vittorio Aureli and Marson Korbi, Mario Carpo and Mark Garcia, Charles L Davis II and Curry J Hackett, Francesca Hughes and Urtzi Grau, MOULD, and Bryony Roberts and Abriannah Aiken, alongside original material from the Charles Jencks Archive. ‘Chronograms of Architecture‘ was initiated and commissioned by the Jencks Foundation in collaboration with e-flux Architecture.

A symposium organised by the Jencks Foundation and e-flux Architecture

Chronograms of Architecture

Architectural Association

11:00 - 18:30, 20 October 2023

Chronograms of Architecture takes its starting point from Charles Jencks’ iconic Evolutionary Tree diagrams tracing architecture and society’s pulsations between different ideals through time. Beyond visualising and classifying architectural styles and traditions, Jencks’ ever-evolving diagrams provided a visual tool to analyse, understand, and represent dynamic relations between architecture and society as they unfold.

Tour

Curator-led Tour of The Cosmic House

The Cosmic House

2.30 – 4 pm, 18 September 2023

Please join us on the 18th of September for a curator-led tour of The Cosmic House. The Cosmic House, one of the world’s most important examples of Post-Modern architecture, opened to the public in September 2021. Situated in London’s Holland Park, it became the UK’s first Grade I listed Post-Modern interior. Begun in 1978, the conversion of the house was a collaboration between Charles and Maggie Jencks and the architect Terry Farrell with contributions from Piers Gough, Eduardo Paolozzi, Michael Graves, Celia Scott, Allen Jones and others. Its symbolic architecture, complex iconography and cosmic references are all imbued with Charles’ characteristic learning and wit.

Exhibition

Madelon Vriesendorp: Cosmic Housework

The Cosmic House

12 September 202313 September 2024

The Jencks Foundation presents Cosmic Housework, a site-specific exhibition by Madelon Vriesendorp playfully responding to the various spaces and key themes of The Cosmic House, on view from 12 September 2023 to 13 September 2024.

Tour

Curator-led Tour of The Cosmic House

The Cosmic House

2.30 – 4 pm, 21 August 2023

Please join us on the 21st of August for a curator-led tour of The Cosmic House. The Cosmic House, one of the world’s most important examples of Post-Modern architecture, opened to the public in September 2021. Situated in London’s Holland Park, it became the UK’s first Grade I listed Post-Modern interior. Begun in 1978, the conversion of the house was a collaboration between Charles and Maggie Jencks and the architect Terry Farrell with contributions from Piers Gough, Eduardo Paolozzi, Michael Graves, Celia Scott, Allen Jones and others. Its symbolic architecture, complex iconography and cosmic references are all imbued with Charles’ characteristic learning and wit.

Tour

Curator-led Tour of The Cosmic House

The Cosmic House

2.30 – 4 pm, 17 July 2023

Please join us on the 17th of July for a curator-led tour of The Cosmic House. The Cosmic House, one of the world’s most important examples of Post-Modern architecture, opened to the public in September 2021. Situated in London’s Holland Park, it became the UK’s first Grade I listed Post-Modern interior. Begun in 1978, the conversion of the house was a collaboration between Charles and Maggie Jencks and the architect Terry Farrell with contributions from Piers Gough, Eduardo Paolozzi, Michael Graves, Celia Scott, Allen Jones and others. Its symbolic architecture, complex iconography and cosmic references are all imbued with Charles’ characteristic learning and wit.

Tour

Curator-led Tour of The Cosmic House

The Cosmic House

2.30 – 4 pm, 19 June 2023

Please join us on the 19th of June for a curator-led tour of The Cosmic House. The Cosmic House, one of the world’s most important examples of Post-Modern architecture, opened to the public in September 2021. Situated in London’s Holland Park, it became the UK’s first Grade I listed Post-Modern interior. Begun in 1978, the conversion of the house was a collaboration between Charles and Maggie Jencks and the architect Terry Farrell with contributions from Piers Gough, Eduardo Paolozzi, Michael Graves, Celia Scott, Allen Jones and others. Its symbolic architecture, complex iconography and cosmic references are all imbued with Charles’ characteristic learning and wit.

Tour

Curator-led Tour of The Cosmic House

The Cosmic House

2.30 – 4 pm, 15 May 2023

Please join us on the 15th of May for a curator-led tour of The Cosmic House. The Cosmic House, one of the world’s most important examples of Post-Modern architecture, opened to the public in September 2021. Situated in London’s Holland Park, it became the UK’s first Grade I listed Post-Modern interior. Begun in 1978, the conversion of the house was a collaboration between Charles and Maggie Jencks and the architect Terry Farrell with contributions from Piers Gough, Eduardo Paolozzi, Michael Graves, Celia Scott, Allen Jones and others. Its symbolic architecture, complex iconography and cosmic references are all imbued with Charles’ characteristic learning and wit.

Lecture

Histories Without a Voice: Marysia Lewandowska’s residency at The Cosmic House

The Courtauld Institute of Art

17:30- 19:30, 11 May 2023

As the inaugural artist-in-residence at The Cosmic House, Marysia Lewandowska undertook detailed archival research, resulting in a site-specific sound installation. Lewandowska’s work acknowledges Maggie Keswick Jencks’ contribution as a designer and intellectual, employing spoken voice recordings and written texts. For this seminar, Lewandowska will reflect on the process of making the artwork in relation to research undertaken during her year-long residency, as she connects this project to her ongoing interest in recovering women’s histories.

Tour

Curator-led Tour of The Cosmic House

The Cosmic House

2.30 – 4 pm, 24 April 2023

Please join us on the 24th of April for a curator-led tour of The Cosmic House. The Cosmic House, one of the world’s most important examples of Post-Modern architecture, opened to the public in September 2021. Situated in London’s Holland Park, it became the UK’s first Grade I listed Post-Modern interior. Begun in 1978, the conversion of the house was a collaboration between Charles and Maggie Jencks and the architect Terry Farrell with contributions from Piers Gough, Eduardo Paolozzi, Michael Graves, Celia Scott, Allen Jones and others. Its symbolic architecture, complex iconography and cosmic references are all imbued with Charles’ characteristic learning and wit.

Exhibition

Raqs Media Collective: 1980 in Parallax

The Cosmic House

19 April22 December 2023

1980 in Parallax is an exhibition by Raqs Media Collective that centres around a new film commission, The Bicyclist Who Fell into a Time Cone – a poetic reflection on perceptions of a particular moment in history while moving through time, past and present, interrogating varied geographies of perceived centres and peripheries.

What can you do with a Cosmic House? Part 2

Online

18:00 – 19:30, 27 March 2023

Join Liza Fior, Stephen Kwok, Bahbak Hashemi-Nezhad to play new games and talk about games in the context of a museum – not a place where we are often allowed to play. This event marks the end of a residency that CCA Curator Public, Lev Bratishenko started in 2022 at The Cosmic House in London, opened by the Jencks Foundation as a cultural laboratory to promote critical experimentation in historical and artistic research.

Lecture

2022 RIBA Charles Jencks Award Lecture with Forensic Architecture

RIBA (Cancelled)

7pm, 22 February 2023

The Jencks Foundation and the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) are pleased to announce the 2022 recipient of the RIBA Charles Jencks Award is Forensic Architecture. This annual award is given to an individual or practice who has simultaneously made a major contribution to both the theory and practice of architecture. Forensic Architecture will be presented with the award at the RIBA on 22nd February at 7pm, after which they will give a lecture and be interviewed by Thomas Aquilina from the New Architecture Writers programme.

Site-specific Installation

Marysia Lewandowska: how to pass through a door

The Cosmic House

10 October 20229 September 2023

The Jencks Foundation is thrilled to announce the opening of Marysia Lewandowska’s site-specific sound installation how to pass through a door, at The Cosmic House from 10th October 2022. The new sound installation, with the title borrowed from one of Maggie Keswick Jencks notebooks containing detailed records related to the design programme of The Cosmic House, is the culmination of the artist’s one-year-long sustained engagement with the Jencks’ archives in London and in Portrack, Scotland.

Tour

Curator-led Tour of The Cosmic House

The Cosmic House

2 – 3.30 pm, 19 September 2022

Please join us on the 19th of September for a curator-led tour of The Cosmic House. The Cosmic House, one of the world’s most important examples of Post-Modern architecture, opened to the public in September 2021. Situated in London’s Holland Park, it became the UK’s first Grade I listed Post-Modern interior. Begun in 1978, the conversion of the house was a collaboration between Charles and Maggie Jencks and the architect Terry Farrell with contributions from Piers Gough, Eduardo Paolozzi, Michael Graves, Celia Scott, Allen Jones and others. Its symbolic architecture, complex iconography and cosmic references are all imbued with Charles’ characteristic learning and wit.

Tour

Curator-led Tour of The Cosmic House

The Cosmic House

2 – 4 pm, 22 August 2022

Please join us on the 22nd of August for a curator-led tour of The Cosmic House. The Cosmic House, one of the world’s most important examples of Post-Modern architecture, opened to the public in September 2021. Situated in London’s Holland Park, it became the UK’s first Grade I listed Post-Modern interior. Begun in 1978, the conversion of the house was a collaboration between Charles and Maggie Jencks and the architect Terry Farrell with contributions from Piers Gough, Eduardo Paolozzi, Michael Graves, Celia Scott, Allen Jones and others. Its symbolic architecture, complex iconography and cosmic references are all imbued with Charles’ characteristic learning and wit.

Award

Architecture Writing Prize 2022

12 August3 October 2022

A new architectural writing prize announced by Architecture Foundation, and supported by Drawing Matter, the Jencks Foundation and the Marchus Trust

Tour

Dimensions of a House (Museum)

The Mosaic Rooms, Walmer Yard, The Cosmic House

2pm - 5.30pm, 5 August 2022

Spend an afternoon exploring architecturally significant, eclectic and fictive house museums in West London, starting with a tour by the curator of Mahmoud Khaled’s exhibition ‘Fantasies on a Found Phone, Dedicated to the Man Who Lost it’, we will walk through Holland Park, followed by a walk through House 1 at Walmer Yard, led by its keeper Laura Mark and culminating in a visit to The Cosmic House.

Tour

Curator-led Tour of The Cosmic House

The Cosmic House

2.30 – 4.30 pm, 11 July 2022

Please join us on the 11th of July for a curator-led tour of The Cosmic House. The Cosmic House, one of the world’s most important examples of Post-Modern architecture, opened to the public in September 2021. Situated in London’s Holland Park, it became the UK’s first Grade I listed Post-Modern interior. Begun in 1978, the conversion of the house was a collaboration between Charles and Maggie Jencks and the architect Terry Farrell with contributions from Piers Gough, Eduardo Paolozzi, Michael Graves, Celia Scott, Allen Jones and others. Its symbolic architecture, complex iconography and cosmic references are all imbued with Charles’ characteristic learning and wit.

Conversation

Curating the Cosmic House

The Warburg Institute - Online

17:30 - 19:00, 25 January 2022

Curatorial Conversations bring to the Warburg curators of world-leading museums and galleries to discuss their work.

Launch

When ’wasms became ‘isms - Launch of Jencks Foundation Website

Architectural Association - Online

18:00 - 19:30, 19 January 2022

A conversation to launch the Jencks Foundation's new website, hosted by the Architectural Association

Lecture

The RIBA Charles Jencks Award 2021

RIBA | Online

6.30pm to 8pm, 2 November 2021

The recipient of the RIBA Charles Jencks Award 2021 is Indian architect Anupama Kundoo. Anupama will be presented with the award on Tuesday 2 November at 6.30pm after which she will deliver a lecture and be interviewed by a critic in collaboration with the New Architecture Writers program, with questions from an online audience.

Exhibition

Cosmic, Comic, Cosmetic: Themes and Designs for a House

The Cosmic House

24 September 202123 December 2022

To mark the public opening of The Cosmic House, this inaugural display brings together a selection of materials from Charles Jencks’ archive that outline the history of the building and some of the key influences and collaborations that helped to develop and shape the ideas behind its design.