Von Chua:

Were there any house museums in the world that provided inspiration and guidance?

Lily Jencks:

I would love to have spent a year looking at other house museums but we had no time at all. Although certainly, the Soane Museum influenced my father in the design of the house. The use of mirrors, the use of layering of space, using a private house experiment to teach about Architecture - all of that is very Soanian. We looked at that a bit but obviously, we live in a different period, so it's just been about defining what we want to be, rather than looking back at references. We want The Cosmic House to be more than a house museum. We want it to be more than a place that is just about a man, or family, that lived here. It's more ambitious than that. We want to act more like a cultural institute.

Von Chua:

The Cosmic House is the first post-war home to be Grade I listed, and also one of only two Grade I listed post-war homes in the UK. The listing, at the highest level as a Grade I listed building is of exceptional interest (only 2.5% of listed buildings are Grade I), is a testament to Charles Jencks’ philosophy and work. From your perspective, does this heritage listing change how you and the Jencks Foundation look after the property?

Lily Jencks:

I suppose we're lucky. We've already started doing the building works in the garage when it was listed, so we were allowed to finish that building work. It’s partly because we had a big garage and we weren't using it. It's complicated when you plan to have visitors in, with wet umbrellas and coats. You can't have that many people coming in through the original front door at the Cosmic Oval before it gets quite complex. It's already pretty complex taking people around the house, particularly in groups of people more than six. I don't think the heritage listing will change us that much, I hope.

Though what's great about the listing is that as we're applying to be a charity, the Grade I listing helps in that application because the house is certified as a place of value. It's not just that we think it's a cool place and we want to open it. The house is accepted as something of value, therefore, opening to the public as a charitable object.

Von Chua:

With the new green flooring in the new exhibition space, was it your take or a collaboration between you and your father?

Lily Jencks:

The whole conversion of the garage into a new exhibition space was a collaboration. We worked on that in the last year of his life. He didn't see any of it built sadly. He didn't have input in the floor finish although he really wanted the floor to look like malachite, which bits of it does, that green rock. I hope he will be proud of it.

Von Chua:

What is your favourite space in the house?

Lily Jencks:

My favourite room is the cosmic loo (toilet). There is an interactive frieze around this small room - you can take the postcard ornamentation, replace them and move them around, a never-ending artwork on the wall. But they're only postcards, so you can get new ones and change them. I like that use of ad hoc, what he termed as ad hoc use of ornamentations. For example, buying a spring to make a lighting fixture in the spring room, and adding it in. I really like that attitude - not too precious, kind of interactive but quite sophisticated too, playful.

Von Chua:

The Cosmic House is not a typical family home. On Wallpaper* magazine, you mentioned that you want to make the Cosmic House “an intimate setting for a strictly limited number of visitors” even if you remember from your childhood as a place you were "reluctant to bring school friends.” Do you have any memories of when you realised that you have grown up in a unique house?

Lily Jencks:

So hard to tell! One of my childhood memories, I really wanted to have pets. I was obsessed by having animals and there was no way that I was going to be allowed to have a dog. Eventually, I was allowed to have a rabbit and then a hamster. My father designed this post-modernist rabbit hutch for the rabbit, which it hated! It had a tower but all the rabbit wanted was to be down in a hole where it's dark. It never enjoyed the hutch. It's so funny. I used to play with the hamster everywhere in the house - tons of fun. You can imagine, the holes under the furniture here or in his study. It used to make him crazy. My family didn't like animals at all.

Now, I feel incredibly lucky to be able to do this. It's a wonderful way to stay connected with him, and my mother in some ways too, she died a long time ago now. But just, being part of staying in conversation with him.

Von Chua:

Congratulations on the upcoming opening of The Cosmic House in September 2021. It is a significant time not only to showcase the epitome of a post-modern home but also to challenge what a home represents to an individual or a family as we now spend more time in our homes. I look forward to seeing the rare opening of this house museum. Can you reveal some of the long-term plans for The Cosmic House?

We are refining our idea of the cosmic orientation of architecture. Therefore, we are looking at who we want to collaborate with and the types of residencies we want to run. The public programme, publications and hopefully, reaching out and being able to connect with the international audience.

- Lily Jencks

 Lily Jencks:

We are refining our idea of the cosmic orientation of architecture. Therefore, we are looking at who we want to collaborate with and the types of residencies we want to run. The public programme, publications and hopefully, reaching out and being able to connect with the international audience.

We want to position ourselves more as a learning environment, rather than a commercial one - using the archive, having scholars come in to use it for research, and also supporting research that is looking outwards beyond the walls of the house museum.

- Lily Jencks

People want to visit for all sorts of reasons. Some people will come because they are interested in post-modernism, interior design or have just heard of this eccentric house. We want to position ourselves more as a learning environment, rather than a commercial one - using the archive, having scholars come in to use it for research, and also supporting research that is looking outwards beyond the walls of the house museum. We will also provide grants for research outside of the institution. It's really important to find a balance. We really don't want to be an inward-looking organisation. We have to be for this year, by necessity, to open the museum. But then I hope to be able to reach out more.

This is a big private house in Holland Park. We're very aware that it has a certain elitism built into it, and we want to break that down as much as we can. One of the things we're really interested in is how we can have different people host events here. By allowing different people to be hosts, and use the space as they wish, we can open up the house as the setting for new conversations and different types of audiences.

We shape our homes and then our homes shape us.

- Winston Churchill

For Charles Jencks, the home that he shaped and subsequently invited many into, shaped many critical conversations. Through those conversations and debates, I trust he influenced the work of many contemporary architects and artists, challenged them to think harder about their work and the wider purpose of what they do. Through the opening of The Cosmic House and its ambitions, led by Lily Jencks and artistic director Eszter Steierhoffer, the strong team are continuing Charles Jencks' legacy in creating the opportunity to continue shaping us as well as the future generations in an intimate setting, plus creating a rare opportunity to take a glimpse into Charles Jencks' home of over 40 years that is his manifesto for post-modernism.

With sincere thank you to Lily Jencks for taking the time to introduce The Cosmic House, share some background to the creation of the house and reveal the ambitions for the house museum.

If you are in London and interested in post-modernism, spatial design, interior details, creative use of materials or simply to visit a lived-in house of a playful creative who collaborated and curated work by others in the Jencks family home, The Cosmic House (https://thecosmichouse.com/) will be opening on 24 September 2021. As there is a limit to the number of allowable daily visitors, do pre-book ahead to avoid any disappointment. Further information and a full public programme will be released in September 2021.

If you have any questions or would like to further discuss this interview about The Cosmic House, please do not hesitate to contact me via email at von@vonxarchitects.com