Cosmic House
| The Cosmic House | |
| Middlesex | |
|---|---|
 The Cosmic House | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | TQ24508038 |
| Location: | 51°30’31"N, 0°12’26"W |
| History | |
| Built 1840s / 1979-1985 | |
| Townhouse | |
| Information | |
The Cosmic House, which was previously known as the Thematic House is a wildly eccentrically designed house at 19 Lansdowne Walk in Holland Park, Middlesex. From the street outside it appears as a grand neo-classical villa in the same model as others of Lansdowne Walk, built at the height of post-Georgian grandeur, but beginning in 1979, it was transformed into a ingeniously fanciful post-modernist home.
The house is a Grade I listed building at.[1]
Charles Jencks is responsible for the house in its current form: he is credited with defining and fostering the post-modernist movement internationally, and this was his home, created with to embody his ideas and personality.
Jencks created the house in collaboration with other postmodern architects including Terry Farrell and Michael Graves, as his own home.[2][3] The sculptors Celia Scott and Eduardo Paolozzi also participated in its development.[4]
The existing 1840s end-of-terrace villa was initially purchased by Jencks and his wife Maggie Keswick in May 1978, and the transformation of the main structure was completed in 1983.[1] The stucco-fronted building houses such interior features as pedimented bookshelves, a sundial window seat, and an upside-down classical dome serving as a jacuzzi.[4] The main Solar Stair is complemented by a semi-circular 'Moonwell', which channels natural light over a darker area.[1] The house encapsulates Jencks's theories, and there are plans for it to be converted into an archive museum, named the 'Cosmic House', which could be open to the public by appointment.[4]
The house opened to the public from 24 September 2021, as "The Cosmic House".[5]
Outside links
 |
("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Cosmic House) |
- The Cosmic House
- Photographs of Thematic House at museandmaker.com
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 National Heritage List 1450124: Thematic House (Grade I listing)
- ↑ National Heritage List: Slough trading estate among new additions. BBC News, 10 May 2018
- ↑ Listed postmodern buildings - in pictures. The Guardian, 10 May 2018
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Wainwright, Oliver (15 October 2019). "Charles Jencks obituary". The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2019/oct/15/charles-jencks-obituary.
- ↑ Wainwright, Oliver (22 September 2021). "Is that a dishwasher or a Hindu temple? Inside kitsch masterpiece Cosmic House". The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2021/sep/22/charles-jencks-kitsch-pomo-masterpiece-cosmic-house-godfather-postmodernism.