Charles Jencks

Description	landscape architect, author
Dates	1939 -current
Lived/Worked	American, Edinburgh

Best known for...

Best-known work by Charles Jencks is the stunning Landform project for The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art. It was describing as a transforming experience, a magnet that attracts people into the museums and a unique intervention in the museum and gallery landscape. Landform reflects the Edinburgh landscape and was inspired by chaos theory and weather systems.Since its completion, Landform has become one of Edinburgh's most visited attractions, drawing record numbers into the Galleries.

Why is he important?

Charles Jencks divides his time among lecturing, writing, and designing in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe, and Asia. He earned degrees in English literature and architecture at Harvard and in architectural history at the University of London. He lives in Scotland. His influential book The Language of Post-Modern Architecture (1977) extended the concept of postmodernism from literary criticism to the visual arts. He is author of more than thirty books, including Towards a Symbolic Architecture (1985), The Architecture of the Jumping Universe (1995), and The Garden of Cosmic Speculation (2003). His most recent book, The Iconic Building, analyzes world-famous structures by Frank Gehry, Daniel Libeskind, and Rem Koolhaas, among other leading architects.

Historical context

LETTER TO THE EDITOR:
PUBLISHED IN THE INDEPENDENT, JANUARY 20TH 2003

Why we must speak out against an immoral war.

Dear Sir

Architects Against War

We the undersigned believe that the case for war against Iraq has not been made, that it is immoral, and that it will very likely lead to an increase in international terrorism. As with other professions and bodies directly concerned with the well-being of people and the environment, we feel that taking a moral stand at this moment is necessary. The American and British public has already declared its distaste for coercive pre-emption and unilateral action. Not to take a stand, as a profession, amounts to silent complicity, while speaking up now in the present uncertainty may persuade leaders to pull back from the brink or, at the very least, oblige the Prime Minister to put the choice of War where it belongs: to the people and Parliament.
Our position rests on four main foundations.The case for a Just War cannot be convincingly made; the link of Saddam Hussein with al-Qaeda has not been established; a war against Iraq is likely to kill large numbers of civilians and intensify the great suffering there; and unilateral action by the US (with Britain's support) will undermine international law and set a precedent for pre-emption by other nations in places such as Chechnya, Palestine, Kashmir and Tibet.
It is possible to imagine circumstances where pre-emptive war could be justifiable in this age of mega-terrorism. But these must be exceptional and based on concrete evidence of an immediate and severe threat. Such a showing has not been made in relation to Iraq.
A consequence of invasion by the USA and Britain is likely to be the very clash of civilisations sought by terrorist groups such as al-Qaeda. Arab statesmen from all Muslim countries have said an invasion would be seen either in terms of a Christian "crusade" (President Bush's initial reaction to terrorism) or Western imperialism and the grab for oil. The goal of the terrorist is to make the nation-state itself adopt terrorist tactics, and thereby lose legitimacy in the eyes of the people. In the eyes of the Arab world, the USA and UK are perilously close to being regarded as rogue states who do not respect international law and, if they invade Iraq without just cause, many of their own citizens will so regard them.
Terrorism will have won the War on Terrorism.

Yours faithfully

Charles Jencks, Architectural Historian, Writer and Designer
Paul Hyett, President RIBA
Lord Rogers of River side Architect
Sir Terry Farrell, Architect
Professor William Alsop, Architect
Rick Mather, Architect
Paul Finch, Writer
Eva Jiricna, Architect
Mohsen Mostafavi, Chairman Architectural Association
Zaha Hadid, Architect
Rem Koolhaas, Architect
Sir Richard MacCormac, Architect and Past President RIBA
Ken Powell, Architectural Critic
Richard Murphy, Architect
Frank Gehry, Architect
George Ferguson, Architect
Edward Cullinan, Architect, Royal Institute of British Architects, London

How to see his work

(Sight Scenes)

Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art (National Galleries of Scotland)

Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art , Belford Road, Edinburgh, EH4 3DR, Lothian, Scotland
T: 0131 624 6200
Open: Mon-Sat 1000-1700 Sun 1400-1700

(Most Famous books published)

Towards a Symbolic Architecture (1985)

The Architecture of the Jumping Universe (1995)

The New Paradigm in Architecture: The Language of Post-modernism (2002)

The Garden of Cosmic Speculation (2003)

The Iconic Building: The Power of Enigma (2005)

Charles Jencks on the web

http://www.charlesjencks.com - books questioning Modern architecture and defining its successors - late Neo and Post-modern architecture.