Inside Cosmic House: A Postmodern Icon
Charles Jencks (1939-2019) was an architectural historian, designer, landscape artist and author, who in 1977 wrote the era-defining, The Language of Post-Modern Architecture. In this video, writer, architect and designer Edwin Heathcote introduces the theories and aesthetics of the Postmodern through a behind-the-scenes look at Jencks’ Cosmic House of 1978, his “built manifesto of Postmodernism”. Driven by the idea that great buildings of the past represented coherent worldviews, the structure of Jencks’ house is based on the solar system and replete with references to history, exploring man’s relationship to the cosmos.
Time Period:
20th century
Themes:
Edwin Heathcote is the Architecture and Design Critic of The Financial Times. He is a former architect and designer and the author of around a dozen books. He is the founder of Reading Design and the Keeper of Meaning at The Cosmic House. His most recent book is On the Street: In Between Architecture, HENI Books.
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