Charles Alexander Jencks (born 21 June 1939) is an American architectural theorist, landscape architect and designer. His books on the history and criticism of Modernism and Postmodernism were widely read in architectural circles and beyond. Born in Baltimore to a Scottish mother from Fife,[1] he first studied English Literature at Harvard University, later gaining an MA in architecture from the Graduate School of Design in 1965. He also has a PhD in Architectural History from the Bartlett School of Architecture at University College, London. In the mid-sixties Jencks moved to Scotland where he has lived ever since.[1]
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Jencks studied under the Modern architectural historians Siegfried Giedion and Reyner Banham. He first received his BA in English Literature at Harvard University in 1961, later gaining an MA in architecture from the Graduate School of Design in 1965. He took his studies even further and received his PhD in Architectural History from University College, London in 1970. In the mid-sixties Jencks moved to Scotland where he lived with his late wife Maggie Keswick Jencks. He now designs landscape sculpture and writes on cosmogenic art.
The Garden of Cosmic Speculation, begun in 1988, was dedicated to Jencks' late wife Maggie Keswick. The garden has such a name because Jencks, Keswick, scientists, and their friends designed the garden based on natural and scientific processes. Jencks goal was to celebrate nature, but he also incorporated elements from the modern sciences into the design. The garden contains a species of plants that are pleasurable to the eye, as well as edible. With a ‘century of extraordinary discovery in biology’ like evolution and deoxyribonucleic acid also known as DNA, and cosmology, this has given birth to a new type of garden design [Cosmic]’. Preserving paths and the beauty of the garden is still evident in the garden except, Jencks enhances the garden using new tools and artificial materials. Just as Japanese Zen gardens, Persian paradise gardens, the English and French Renaissance gardens were analogies of the cosmic universe, the design of the garden represents the cosmic and cultural evolution of the contemporary world. The garden represents a microcosm of the universe. As one walks through the garden they are experiencing the cosmic universe in miniature. According to Jencks gardens are like autobiographies because they reveal the happiest moments, the tragedies, and the truths about a person. As the garden developed since 1988, so too did such sciences as cosmology and this allow a dynamic interaction between the unfolding universe, a progressing science and a question design. Jencks believes that contemporary science is potentially the greatest moving force for creativity of our time because it tells us the truth about the way the universe is. Cosmic passion, the desire both to know and to relate to the universe, is one of the strongest drives in sentient creatures on a par with those which exercise novelists: sex, money, and power. Every creature in the universe tries to increase its knowledge, to figure out what is going on, what will happen next, how things are evolving and the point of this passion how we can relate to this process, fit in with its patterns, celebrate and on occasion, criticize it. The laws of nature may be omnipotent, but they can also be challenged. A garden is a perfect place to try out these speculations and celebrations because it is a bit of man-made nature, a fabricated and ideal cosmic landscape, and a critique of the way the universe is.
Jencks has become a leading figure in British landscape architecture. His landscape work is inspired by fractals, genetics, chaos theory, waves and solitons. In Edinburgh, Scotland, he designed the Landform at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art in collaboration with Terry Farrell and Duncan Whatmore of Terry Farrell and Partners. These themes are expanded in his own private garden, the Garden of Cosmic Speculation, at Portrack House near Dumfries. He is also a furniture designer and sculptor, completing the DNA Sculpture in London's Kew Gardens in 2003.
His late wife, Maggie Keswick Jencks, was the founder of Maggie's cancer caring centres, for which Jencks has designed gardens, and the author of a book on Chinese Gardens.
Jencks is synonymous with his writings of Postmodernism in architecture. He discusses his theories of postmodern architecture in his book the Language of Post-Modern Architecture. Jencks discusses the paradigm shift in modern to post-modern architecture. Modern architecture concentrates on univalent forms such as right angles and square buildings often resembling office buildings. However, post modern architecture focuses on forms derived from the mind, body, and nature. His latest book the Iconic Building examines the trend setting and celebrity culture. Jencks discusses why buildings are being designed this way. The reason that our culture seeks the ‘iconic building’ is because it has the possibility of reversing the economic trend of a flagging “conurbation”. An iconic building is created to make a splash, to generate money, and the normal criteria of valuation does not apply. “Enigmatic signifiers” can be used in an effective way to support the deeper meaning of the building. Jencks has lectured at over forty universities throughout the globe, including Peking, Shanghai, Tokyo, Milan, Barcelona, and in the US at Harvard, Columbia, Princeton, and Yale. In his most recent work he collaborated with the late Maggie Keswick on fractal designs of building and furniture as well as extensive landscape designs base on complexity theory, waves and solitons.
Critical Modernism - Where is Post Modernism going is the latest book by Charles Jencks. It is an overview of post-modernism in which Jencks argues that Post modernism is another critical reaction to Modernism that comes from within Modernism itself.[2][3][4]
On 26 March 2007, the Royal Academy hosted a debate between Jencks and John N. Gray centered around the book.[5]
Has appeared on television programmes in the US and UK, written two feature films for the BBC (on Le Corbusier and on Frank Lloyd Wright and Michael Graves).