The Cosmic House

The Cosmic House in the sun. @thecosmichouse.bsky.social

📢 Jencks Award 2025 goes to DAAR! 📢

The award will be marked by a lecture from the recipients on 30 May. 🔗 Follow the link in our bio to book your tickets!

Lina Lapelytė conceived in collaboration with Nouria Bah, Anat Ben- David, Angharad Davies, Sharon Gal, Rebecca Horrox, and Martynas Norvaišas. In the Dark, We Play, 2025, video still by Martynas Norvaisas, commissioned by the Jencks Foundation at The Cosmic House.

Coming Soon: new exhibition ‘In the Dark, We Play’ by artist and composer Lina Lapelytė. ✨

📅 9 April — 19 December
🎟️ Tickets come out every third Friday of each month at 12 pm.
💰 £16 with donation / £13 standard / £5 student

We are delighted to announce the arrival of our new Editor and Twister of Meaning, Lev Bratishenko!

📷 Lev Bratishenko on the roof of The Cosmic House. Photo: Giulio Sheaves

We are hiring! ✨

The Jencks Foundation at The Cosmic House is looking for an Advancement Manager! 🔗 Find more information via the link in our bio.

One of our favourite features at The Cosmic House can be found in the Egyptian Room: the eye-shaped light fixtures above a false door. It feels as though someone comes alive every time you switch the lights on—like a disembodied guardian, always watching over the house. ✨

Before and After: Winter room.

Designed by Michael Graves with a sculpted bust of Hephaestus by Celia Scott, the fireplace is one of the first features seen upon entering The Cosmic House. The first image shows the room during construction in 1983, and the second shows its current appearance.

Have you noticed all of the faces around The Cosmic House?

There are 22 faces incorporated into the house design, and trying to find them all occasionally becomes a fun challenge for our visitors. Some of the faces are easy to spot, while others are very abstract.

Anna McNally's picture of the building, 2025.

The cover of Charles Jencks ‘The Language of Post-Modern Architecture’, 1977.

Minoru Takeyama’s Niban-Kan building in Tokyo has weathered changes since its completion in 1970. Although it has lost its vivid colours over time, it has preserved its distinctive geometry in various shades of grey.

#MinoruTakeyama #NibanKan #PostModernism #CharlesJencks #JencksFoundation #Tokyo

📸 WInter Room at The Cosmic House. Slide from the Jencks archive.

Windows on the World is one of the 17 themes at The Cosmic House.

‘The theme of windows on the world continues from the entrance into the Winter and Spring Rooms. Window doors are used as storage units to create a smaller house within a house.’ – wrote Charles.

⛄ Are you excited about the snow forecast for this week? 🌨️

We came across some slides of a snowy Time Garden from January 1982, back when The Cosmic House was still under construction.

The front door of The Cosmic House is shaped as a stylised human body.

The cutting at the top, with its Jencksiana form, represents a head, around which the family’s initials (CJ, MJ, LJ, JJ) are displayed. The two doorknobs symbolise hands, while the letterbox is positioned as the heart.

💫⁠ The Solar Stair at The Cosmic House 💫

Photograph by Heini Schneebeli, 1984.

Charles Jencks, Madonna of the Future, 1968.

Charles Jencks, Madonna of the Future, 1968.

One of the earliest Charles Jencks ad-hocist designs—Madonna of the Future, 1968—was created by putting together a headless mannequin, an electric cord, an electric heater, and the book by Henry James with the same name.

Read 'An Adhocist Manifesto' on our website. 🔗 in our bio.