Jencks, Charles Alexander

Jencks, Charles Alexander (1939– ). American architect, architectural critic, and historian. His works include many studies in which he defined a range of categories and terms, including Abstract Representation, Action Architecture, Adhocism, Camp, Cardboard Architecture, Ersatz Architecture, the evolution of High Tech which he termed ‘Slick Tech’, Late-Modern Architecture, the Modern Movement, Neo-Vernacular, New Classicism, Pop Architecture, Post-Modernism, Rational Architecture, the Semiological School, Supersensualists, Symbolic Architecture, counterfeit Trompe l'Œil (which he called ‘Superdeception’), and much else. Among his influential books may be mentioned The Language of Post-Modern Architecture (1987), Architecture Today (1988), and Post-Modern Architecture: The New Classicism in Art and Architecture (1988). More recently he has suggested that, as the simplistic dogmas of Modernism are being transformed, architecture is responding to a complex interpretation of reality based on biology, mathematics, and cosmology (among much else): that transformation has embraced Blobismus, the biomorph (or Zoömorphic architecture), Organo-Tech, and fragmentation, but his claims that a ‘new paradigm’ has been found in Deconstructivism have failed to convince everybody.

Bibliography

Jencks (1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1973a, 1977, 1979, 1980, 1980a, 1982, 1982a, 1983, 1985, 1987, 1988, 1988a, 1990, 1993, 1995, 1995a, 1995b, 1999, 1999a, 2000, 2000a, 2002, 2003);
Jencks (ed.) (1983, 1992);
Jencks & Schaarschmidt-Richter (eds.) 1995);
Jencks & Toy (eds.) 1999);
Salingaros et al. (2004);