 Charles Alexander Jencks (born June 21, 1939) is a cultural theorist, landscape designer, architectural

historian, and co-founder of the Maggie’s Cancer Care Centres.

 He has published over thirty books and became famous in the 1980s as theorist of Postmodernism.
 In recent years Jencks has devoted time to landform architecture, especially in Scotland.
 These landscapes include the Garden of Cosmic Speculation and earthworks at Jupiter Artland outside
Edinburgh.
 His continuing project Crawick Multiverse, commissioned by the Duke of Buccleuch, opened in 2015
near Sanquhar.
 Jencks attended Brooks School in North Andover, Massachusetts, and received his Bachelor of Arts degree in
English literature at Harvard University in 1961 and a Master of Arts degree in architecture from the Harvard
Graduate School of Design in 1965.
 In 1965 Jencks moved to the United Kingdom where he now has houses in Scotland and London. In 1970
Jencks received a PhD in architectural history, studying under the radical modernist Reyner
Banham at University College, London. This thesis was the source for his Modern Movements in
Architecture (1973) which criticised the suppression of some Modernist variations.
 Jencks discussed his theories of postmodern architecture in The Language of Post-Modern Architecture (1977),
which ran to seven editions.
 MULTIVALENCE:
 It is preferred to imagination to fancy, univalence.
 Literally means having multiple values. Values in terms of forms, function and aesthetics of the building.
 COMPLEXITY AND CONTRADICTION:
 It is preferred to over simplicity and minimalism which is considered as boring and bland.
 COMPLEXITY AND CHAOS:
 Complexity and chaos theories are considered more basic in explaining nature than linear dynamics, that is
more of nature is non linear in behaviour than linear.
 MEMORY AND HISTORY:
 Memory and history are inevitable in DNA, language, style and the city and are positive catalyst for
inventions.
 Using elements from past or inculcating elements of historical importance in the buildings.
 CODING AND SYMBOLISM:
 All architecture is invented and perceived through codes, hence the language of architecture and symbolic
architecture, hence the double coding of architecture within the codes of both the professional and populace.
 RADICAL ECLECTISM:
 All codes are influenced by semiotic community and various taste culture, hence the need in pluralist culture
for a design based on radical eclectism.
 Use of elements originating from tradition and culture.
 UNIVERSAL IN NATURE:
 Architecture is a public language , hence the need for Post Modern classicism which is partly based on
architectural universals and a changing technology.
 ORNAMENTATION:
 Necessitates ornaments and patterns which should be symbolic and symphonic, hence the relevance of
information theory.
 METAPHOR:
 Necessitates metaphor and this should relate us to natural and cultural concerns, hence the explosion of
zoomorphic imagery, face houses and scientific iconography instead of machines for living .
 CONTEXTUALISM:
 Architecture must form the city, hence contextualism, collage city, neo-rationalism , small block planning,
and mix uses and ages of building.
 PARTICIPATRY DESIGN:
 Must crystallise social reality and in the global city today, the Hetropolis, that very much means the
pluralism of ethnic group, hence participatory design and adhocism.
 GREEN ARCHITECTURE:
 Must confront the ecological reality and that means sustainable development, green architecture and cosmic
symbolism.
 COSMOGENIC ARCHITECTURE:
 A need for an architecture which celebrates criticism, process and humour.
 Architecture must expand and evolve with time.
 The Garden of Cosmic Speculation is a
30 acre (12 hectare) sculpture garden created
by landscape architect and theorist Charles
Jencks at his home, Portrack House,
in Dumfriesshire,Scotland.
 Like much of Jencks' work, the garden is inspired
by modern cosmology.
 The garden is inspired by science and BLACK HOLE
mathematics, with sculptures and landscaping on
these themes, such as black holes and fractals.
 The garden is not abundant with plants, but sets
mathematical formulae and scientific phenomena
in a setting which elegantly combines natural
features and artificial symmetry and curves.
 It is probably unique among gardens, drawing
comparisons with a similarly abstract garden in
Scotland, Little Sparta.
The Scots-American has taken his concepts still further in
his own private garden, which is open to the public for only
one day of the year.
 The Garden’s vast sculpted earth works, lakes and
engineered structures are an impressive tribute to the
mysterious universe which inspired them.
Jencks recalls: “When we began the garden, I was not concerned with the larger issues of the cosmos. But over the
years, they came more and more to the fore and I have used them as a spur to think about nature and to contemplate
and speculate on the origins of the universe. And in that respect, this garden is part of a long historical tradition.
Japanese Zen gardens, Persian paradise gardens, the English and French Renaissance gardens played out the story of
the cosmos as it was understood then. So the idea of the garden as a microcosm of the universe is quite a familiar one.
In fact, I feel it is the most compelling motive to create a garden. What is a garden if not a celebration of our place in
the universe?”
Forty major areas, gardens, bridges, landforms, sculptures,
terraces, fences and architectural works.
 Covering thirty acres in the Borders area of Scotland, the
garden uses nature to celebrate nature, both intellectually and
through the senses, including the sense of humour.

A water cascade of steps recounts the story of the universe, a

terrace shows the distortion of space and time caused by a black
hole, a “Quark Walk” takes the visitor on a journey to the
smallest building blocks of matter, and a series of landforms
and lakes recall fractal geometry.
The Garden of Cosmic Speculation is not a conceptual or even a
symbolic garden — it is a demonstration garden, in which
features are created in order to replicate physical expressions of
cosmological theory in a highly literal manner, in the way of
those little red molecule balls connected by sticks, so beloved of
chemistry teachers.
 In this sense the garden has more in common with
a taxonomically arranged Renaissance botanical
garden (Pisa or Padua) than an artistically
nuanced place such as Little Sparta.
 It has to be said that as time has gone on, the
slightly hectoring tone of the garden has only
increased. It verges on absurdity in the new
cascade, for example, which purports to tell the
story of the entire universe in its terraces, much as
an evangelical 18th-century garden owner once
tried to tell the story of Pilgrim’s Progress in his
domain.
 The Garden of Cosmic Speculation is no longer a
dialogue with the universe, it is a monologue about
the universe. It is becoming The Garden of Comic
Extrapolation, and someone needs to say it.
 Most homes say something about their owners
– but for architect, architectural historian,
landscape designer and promoter of
postmodernism Charles Jencks, his house is the
story.
 His house is the apogee of symbolic
architecture, the eye can barely rest for spotting
and seeking out meanings.
 From the street, the Thematic House isn't that
unusual but gradually the eye sees that the
windows and doors are abstracted human
forms.
 The rear windows can be read as a man, a
woman, a dog and the sun and moon.
 The house is entered through a "Cosmic Oval" a hall panelled with mirrored doors over which images of many
of the subsequent recurring themes of the house are stencilled.
 The two principal ideas expressed in the house are cosmic time (the seasons, passage of the moon and the sun)
and cultural time (the creating and passing of civilisations).
 This sounds very complex and layers of meaning are everywhere, but the house is also surprisingly functional.
The ground floor is organised around a central spiral staircase and from each room at least three others are
visible, emphasising the cycle of seasons.
 The "winter" room is dark and focused on a fireplace surrounded by one of Jencks's passions, Chinese
sculptural rocks.
 These are mounted on ornate carved wooden stands and represent the world.
 On a pillar, surveying the room, is a bust of Hephaestus (the craftsman Greek god) modelled on the features
of artist Eduardo Paolozzi
 The "spring" room is in gentle cream with three busts, of April, May and June, sculpted by Jencks's sister
Penny.
 Jencks designed the furniture down to the light fittings and the columns that are a hiding place for books and
a stereo.
 Adjacent is the "sundial arcade", a stepped-down window seat that overlooks the garden (also designed by
Jencks) via a huge window that descends at the touch of a button. The space itself acts as a sundial.
 The "summer" room is in a gloriously sunny yellow, with a huge circular table that can accommodate 13
guests. Each table leg is decorated with nine planets and the top is a giant blaze of sun.
 The sun chairs and tables look expensive but are made from MDF.
 The wall above was painted by Allen Jones and is based on Poussin's A Dance to the Music of Time.
 The golden theme extends in to the "Indian summer" kitchen.
 The theme is Hindu architecture, with sturdy pillars that open to reveal capacious cupboards and waste bins.
 The visual puns include a real floor and worktops given fake marble finishes. Jencks explains gleefully: "If you
can't take the kitsch, get out of the kitchen." The Hindu god Shiva turns out to be a teapot, by Carol McNicholl
 The seasons are completed with "autumn", a room decorated in burnt red.
 The "solar" staircase, which leads to Jencks's office and bedroom are an abstract representation of the solar
year.
 There are 52 steps, each cast with seven divisions to give 365 grooves. At the base is a mosaic by Paolozzi of a
black hole. There are three rails up the stairs representing the trajectory of the sun, the moon and the stars, a
kind of spiral path through space.
 Upstairs is Jencks's architectural office. The ceiling is like a billowing tent, beneath which is a hamlet of
building-shaped bookcases and filing drawers based on different western architectural styles.
 Glass cut-throughs give a view down to the summer room.