When ’wasms became ‘isms

AA Public Programme

A conversation to launch the Jencks Foundation's new website.

The Jencks Foundation presents archival material from Charles Jencks – often described as the ‘Pope of Post-Modernism’ – as well as new works that interrogate the contemporary relevance of his key themes, from semiotics to meaning and the cosmos.The inaugural theme of the website looks at The Cosmic House, Jencks’ built manifesto of Post-Modernism, and revisits his evolotomes of ‘Post-Modernism’.Charles Jencks (1939–2019) was the leading proponent of Post-Modernism, a writer, critic, designer, and later a landscape designer. He was instrumental in formulating the ideas and theory around Post-Modernism in architecture and broader culture, and in making those ideas accessible through his books. The Jencks Foundation will catalogue and preserve the Jencks Archive and will launch a programme that builds upon Charles Jencks’ multivalent legacy through exhibitions, talks and residencies.This talk will be introduced by Lily Jencks, Director of the Jencks Foundation, followed by a discussion about ‘what was/is post-modern?’ moderated by Eszter Steierhoffer, Artistic Director of the Jencks Foundation with presentations by Glenn Adamson and Sam Jacob.Participants:Glenn Adamson is a curator and writer who works at the intersection of craft, design history and contemporary art. He has previously been Director of the Museum of Arts and Design; Head of Research at the V&amp;A; and Curator at the Chipstone Foundation in Milwaukee. He is the co-host of Design Dialogue, an online interview series co-presented with Friedman Benda gallery.Sam Jacob is principal of Sam Jacob Studio for architecture and design, a practice whose work spans scales and disciplines including architecture, design, and exhibition projects. Recent work includes projects for the Science Museum, the V&amp;A and Somerset House. Sam is a professor of architecture at the University of Illinois Chicago.Lily Jencks is an architectural and landscape designer and educator. In 2010 She founded JencksSquared with Charles, her father, in 2010, working on projects in South Korea, Scotland, and the new exhibition space at The Cosmic House. She has an eponymous landscape and architecture design studio, and most recently taught at the AA Experimental unit 13 with Jessica Reynolds. She is the director of the newly launched Jencks Foundation.Eszter Steierhoffer is an art historian and curator based in London. She curated a number of thematic exhibitions to situate architecture in its broader cultural, historical, and socio-political contexts. Her academic research revolves around the histories and exhibitions of Post-Modern architecture. She is Artistic Director at the Jencks Foundation at The Cosmic House.Image: Jencks Pencil at the Strada Novissima, First International Architecture Biennale in Venice, 1980, credit: Charles Jencks

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When ’wasms became ‘isms

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When ’wasms became ‘isms

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Hooke Park Open Day

Exhibition tours: AA Projects Review 2026

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