Charles Jencks

Jencks' Landform at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art

Charles Jencks (born 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, 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 University College, London. In the mid-sixties Jencks moved to Scotland where he has resided ever since.

Although not coining the term postmodern, his 1977 book The Language of Post-Modern Architecture is often regarded as having popularised its use in relation to architecture.

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. 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 the Maggie's cancer caring centres, for which Jencks has designed gardens, and the author of a book on Chinese Gardens.

Critical Modernism - Where is Post Modernism going?

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.

On 26 March 2007, the Royal Academy hosted a debate between Jencks and John N. Gray centered around the book.

Select bibliography

• Critical Modernism - Where is Post Modernism going?, Wiley Academy, London, 2007.
• The Iconic Building - The Power of Enigma, Frances Lincoln, London, 2005.
• The Garden of Cosmic Speculation, Frances Lincoln Limited, London, October 2003.
• The New Paradigm in Architecture, (seventh edition of The Language of Post-Modern Architecture), Yale University Press, London, New Haven, 2002.
• Le Corbusier and the Continual Revolution in Architecture, The Monacelli Press, 2000
• Architecture 2000 and Beyond, (Critique & new predictions for 1971 book), Academy, Wiley, May 2000
• The Architecture of the Jumping Universe, Academy, London & NY, 1995. Second Edition Wiley, 1997.
• Heteropolis - Los Angeles, The Riots & Hetero-Architecture, Academy, London & NY, 1993.
• The New Moderns, Academy London, Rizzoli, NY 1990.
• The Prince, The Architects and New Wave Monarchy, Academy, London and Rizzoli, NY 1988.
• Post-Modernism, The New Classicism in Art and Architecture, Rizzoli, NY and Academy, London 1987; German edition, 1987, reprinted 1988.
• What is Post-Modernism?, St Martins Press, NY 1986, Academy, London 1986. Second Edition 1988. Third Edition 1989. Fourth Edition 1996.
• Towards A Symbolic Architecture, Rizzoli, NY; Academy, London 1985.
• Kings of Infinite Space, St. Martins Press, NY; Academy, London 1983.
• Abstract Representation, St. Martins Press, NY 1983, Architectural Design monograph, London 1983.
• Skyscrapers - Skycities, Rizzoli, NY 1980, Academy, London 1980.
• Signs, Symbols and Architecture, edited with Richard Bunt and Geoffrey Broadbent, John Wiley, NY and London 1980.
• Late-Modern Architecture, Rizzoli, NY 1980, Academy, London 1980. Translated into German and Spanish.
• Bizarre Architecture, Rizzoli, NY 1979 and Academy, London 1979.
• The Language of Post-Modern Architecture, Rizzoli, NY 1977, revised 1978, Third Ed. 1980, Fourth Ed. 1984, Fifth Ed. 1988, Sixth Ed. 1991, Academy Editions London 1977, 1978, 1980, 1984, 1991.
• Modern Movements in Architecture, Anchor Press, NY 1973.
• Adhocism, with Nathan Silver, Doubleday, NY 1972.

External links

• Charles Jencks website
• Archinect interview (12/2005)
• Books by Charles Jencks
• What is Critical Postmodernism Theory?