Cosmic House

Cosmic House is a mid-19th century terraced house comprehensively remodelled between 1979 and 1985 by architectural theorist Charles Jencks working with Terry Farrell Partnership. The transformation created one of the most significant examples of Post-Modern domestic architecture in Britain, combining scholarly references to architectural history with highly personal symbolism based on cosmology, seasons and family.

MATERIALS

The house retains its original load-bearing brick structure, partly clad in stucco with plastered and painted surfaces internally. The floors, roof structure and window frames are timber, while internal fittings are constructed from medium density fibre board and other materials. The cylindrical stairwell and rear conservatory bays are reinforced concrete. The garden stairway is steel. The main house has a slate roof while the western addition is clad in lead.

EXTERIOR

The street-facing north elevation largely preserves the appearance of the original 1840s terrace. The main house rises four storeys including basement and attics. The lower portion, openings and cornice are finished in stucco with rustication to the raised ground floor, while the first floor is of contrasting London stock brick. The elevation is arranged in two bays: a narrow entrance bay to the left and a wider bay to the right containing the principal rooms, which breaks forward slightly. The original Italianate stucco decoration is largely confined to the entrance portico and the principal first-floor window, which has a balconette with guilloche-like balusters supported on consoles and a moulded segmental arch over the architrave.

Jencks's interventions to the north elevation include the front door and fanlight which, with its double doorknobs and applied mouldings, creates an anthropomorphic figure. The fanlight incorporates his family's initials in abstract form. The cornice is pierced by dormer windows whose stepped and arched forms echo those of the rear elevation. The western annex, a 20th century addition remodelled by Jencks, is three storeys and three bays. Its design picks up the rusticated stucco and fenestration of the main house, while the parapet balustrade reproduces a flattened version of the guilloche motif, nicknamed 'rabbits' by Jencks and Keswick. The hipped roof has an ogee profile clad in lead and is surmounted by a small roof terrace enclosed by a square gridded balustrade.

In the west side elevation, the twin chimney stacks of the 1840s house are transformed into a pair of 'London columns' with stepped bases and sunburst capitals. A central glazed section lights the central stair, the central portion of which is semi-circular in plan to resemble an engaged column. At first-floor level multi-paned windows have been inserted into the outer brick bays. The central windows of the western addition are ordered into a full-height bay unified by spandrels of square tiling and steel grids framed by rusticated stucco bands. The balustrade is pierced by a dormer window with the stagger-and-curve 'Jencksiana' motif, crowned by a gridded openwork pediment.

The garden-facing south elevation is brick and the rear windows of the main house are grouped into wide bands of stucco. The dormer windows have 'Jencksiana' motifs of different sizes and designs. A pair of two-storey conservatories breaking forward have a reinforced concrete frame painted white. Their glazed infill and the balustrade to the roof terrace repeat the 'Jencksiana' forms. Flanking the conservatories and breaking forward of them is an arched basement entrance with oversized voussoirs and a voided keystone, surmounted by a small roof terrace served by a double-flight closed-string stair of steel. The four 'Jencksiana' openings can be read as a family group: the two dormer windows represent the children of the household, the east conservatory the mother, and the west conservatory the father. Thus the motifs become more explicitly anthropomorphic on the more private garden elevation.

PLAN AND INTERIORS

In general terms, the original cellular layout has been opened up to create a fluid, semi-open plan framed by the central stair and extending out into two rear conservatories. Diagonal vistas were created by cutting through walls at certain points, while disparities between front and back elevations were resolved by the technique of shifted axes, derived from Jencks's study of 18th century French architecture. The layouts are also characterised by the use of circles, arcs and ellipses.

Ground Floor

The ground floor was designed for receiving visitors and entertaining guests as well as the needs of the occupants. The principal rooms, occupying the wider bay of the 19th century house and the western addition, follow a seasonal programme. This was prompted by the plan in which the principal rooms radiate around the central Solar Stair, and by a design for a house based on the four seasons by the 18th century Flemish architect Jean-François de Neufforge.

The entrance hall, elliptical in plan, was conceived by Jencks as a 'cosmic oval' and reflects his growing interest in science and cosmology. The walls comprise a series of panelled doors with double doorknobs, framed mirror glass and a moulded cornice. Some open onto cupboards while others are false. Stencil lettering of Jencks's design describes the major themes of the house: 'THE COSMIC LAW IS / TIME'S RHYTHM WHICH / RULES SUN & MOON / THE FOUR SEASONS TOO / GIVING HEAT & LIGHT / OVER ALL ARCHITECTURE / EGYPT & CHINA BEGIN / ARCHETYPES & READYMADES / THE FOURSQUARE MOTIF / WINDOWS ON THE WORLD / THE 5 BUILDING ARTS / IN FREE CLASSIC STYLE / TWENTY-TWO FACES / AN ECLECTIC WHOLE / OF PERSONAL SIGNS / OWLS, LILLIES, CATS / FIX A PLACE IN TIME'.

Above is a mural frieze by William Stok depicting historical figures from different cultures engaged in conversation, including the ancient Egyptian architect and royal physician Imhotep, Pythagoras, a Chinese poet, Hadrian, Abbot Suger, Erasmus, a Jesuit astrologer, John Donne, Borromini, Prince Hito, Thomas Jefferson and Hannah Arendt. Into the softwood floor is inlaid a series of rectangles inscribed into ovals, representing the earth and sky. This geometric sequence is repeated in a series of nested domes suspended from the ceiling, which is based on domes by the 17th century Italian architect Guarino Guarini. Adjoining is a cloakroom and a water closet, 'the Cosmic Loo' in Jencks's programme, which features an elaborately-framed mirror and mirrored ceiling.

The north-facing front room, dedicated to Winter, is en suite with the rear Spring room. There are entrances to the principal stair and entrance hall and a narrow, staggered diagonal opening to the Autumn room to the west. The floorboards of Winter and Spring are painted ultramarine blue with a gloss finish, while their ceilings share a quadrant motif with a mirrored surface. Bookcases line the east wall of both rooms, their doors having double doorknobs and panes of clear glass. They mark one of the themes of the house: 'windows on the world'. The Winter fireplace was designed by Michael Graves and executed in medium density fibre board painted to resemble red marble. It takes the abstracted form of fluted uprights carrying a lintel with a projecting square keystone. An engaged column in contrasting yellow and dark green supports a bronze bust of Hephaestus, a portrait of Eduardo Paolozzi by Celia Scott. The walls of the Winter room are painted grey against which the chimneybreast is picked out in dark blue, with the bust framed by six bronze stars.

The south-facing Spring room is painted in a lighter grey. Graves also designed the Spring fireplace, which omits the projecting keystone of the Winter fireplace and is decorated with a pale yellow colour scheme. He also designed tall plinths formed of groups of four slender pillars for three bronze busts by Penny Jencks symbolising April, May and June. Also of Graves's design is the stencilled abstract flower motif. Framing the conservatory are a pair of 'London columns' with fluted bases concealing hi-fi speakers, square shafts incorporating bookcases and flaring capitals incorporating translucent scallop lamp shades. A staggered diagonal doorway to the dining room mirrors that to the north. A sunken, semi-circular window seat occupies the projecting conservatory bay. The central window can be lowered mechanically with an electric mechanism. The bench was designed to resemble a series of terraced arcades when viewed from the garden terrace; from above, it suggests an arch with the central step in place of a dropped keystone. A central, semi-circular table is inscribed with a sundial, from which the room takes its name, 'Sundial Arcade'.

East of the Spring room is the Egyptian Room, a small study with a lower ceiling. A built-in bench has inscribed ornament representing Nile mud and pyramid forms, while the cornice is decorated with a lotus frieze. On the party wall, on axis with the Spring fireplace, is a series of nested and recessed architraves around a false door with mirror panels. This structure, which conceals service pipes, is intended to recall an Egyptian false wall through which the departed looks back at the world he has left.

The south-western portion of the ground floor is occupied by the dining room, named after Summer and painted in a yellow shade. Exposed rafters radiate out diagonally from the Solar Stair, symbolising the sun's rays. The ceiling beams rest on twin 'heat and light' columns with stepped brick capitals and bases, column radiators for shafts and uplighters. To the east and west is an internal clerestorey with views to the Architectural Library above. The columns frame a curved balcony overlooking the double-height conservatory. The conservatory is painted white and lit by four pyramidal skylights let into the flat roof. Its front window can also be lowered by pressing a button. The flat balustrade is pierced with a winged sun motif. The dining room and kitchen can be divided by pulling out a row of folding doors attached to a track in the floor. The doors are multi-paned and glazed with mirror glass.

The kitchen is named 'Indian Summer' after its location mid-way between the Summer and Autumn rooms. It has a low ceiling with exposed rafters radiating from the central stairwell. Taking its themes from Hindu and Mogul architecture, the kitchen features bulbous engaged columns and cupboard doors, a reference to the columns of the Ajanta Caves in Aurangabad, India, and surfaces are painted to simulate the pink marble of the buildings of New Delhi. Above the sink is a stepped plate rack which accommodates a narrow window through to the Solar Stair. Above is a frieze of painted wooden spoons, dubbed 'spoonglyphs' in a pun on ancient Greek triglyphs, which alternate with storage alcoves. The ceiling steps up from the kitchen to the Autumn room, a pantry. Both side walls have three storage units diminishing in scale towards the front wall. They are painted in a burnt sienna hue and decorated with an Egyptian ankh motif.

At the centre of the house is the Solar Stair which represents the solar year. It has 52 steps, one for each week of the year, of pre-cast concrete cantilevered from the cylindrical stairwell structure. Openings cut through the stairwell at different points give glimpses to the adjoining rooms. Each riser has seven subdivisions to mark the days of the week. The curved mouldings to the soffit of the staircase were inspired by Inigo Jones's Queen's House at Greenwich. Incorporated into the ends of the steps are mirror discs bearing signs of the zodiac designed by Jencks and made by Ilinca Cantacuzino. Orbs on the three tubular aluminium hand rails represent the paths of the sun, earth and moon. At the base of the stairwell is a Black Hole mosaic by Eduardo Paolozzi. At the top of the stairwell is 'Cosmic Galaxies & Planets', an early-21st century installation of selenite and fibre-optics by Jencks.

First Floor

The configuration of the first floor broadly follows the ground floor, with the principal bedroom and Maggie Keswick's study occupying the principal bay of the main house, and the western addition given over to an architectural library.

The Architectural Library occupies the full length of the western addition and is open to the curved underside of the roof, creating a tent-like interior. The roof is painted sky blue and is supported on slender cylindrical stanchions painted white. The floor is covered with a baize-like green carpet. To the north are three tiered steps with side returns, intended to form a seating area for slide shows. The opposite end of the room partly encloses a roof terrace accessed via a pair of French windows. Adjoining the sides of the terrace are glazed light tables for viewing slides. They incorporate floor voids allowing glimpsed views to the dining room below. The fitted bookshelves are designed as a village of 'bookhouses', made from flat panels of medium density fibre board painted with a wood grain finish. Each bookcase signifies a period of architecture, from Egyptian to Post-Modern, acting as a finding aid. The staircase drum is 'peeled back' in successive layers of stucco, brick and reinforced concrete to reveal a window with a stepped sill. The ceiling above is cut away in a scalloped pattern, painted purple-blue to resemble storm-clouds, to reveal a sunburst motif of rafters radiating from the stairwell. The whole composition forms one of the more detailed face motifs in the house.

The 'Foursquare Room', the master bedroom, is a series of variations on the motif of the square and the quadrant. The room is carpeted and the walls are painted white and cream. A series of wooden fittings, mostly of four-by-four inch timber sections painted white, are linked by a continuous cornice-like strip which is stencilled with a blue four square motif. An open framework of four-by-four inch uprights divides the room from the landing and an internal window is set into the stairwell wall. The convex stairwell form is matched by the quarter-round frame of the dressing room in the south west corner. Central to the west wall is a fireplace with an open framed surround and a low, concave bench in white painted timber.

The landing is punctuated by doors decorated with applied stepped mouldings and double doorknobs. On axis with the Solar Stair is the 'Moonwell', a shaft of space bringing natural light from a roof light to the darker areas adjoining the party wall. This element is comparable to the light wells at Charles Moore's house at New Haven, Connecticut, of 1966 to 1967. On the floor above, the semi-circular void is pierced by arched windows and backed by a wall of framed mirrors to give the illusion of a cylindrical space lit by a 'full moon'. The uppermost mirror is etched with a moon incorporating figures from Chinese legend by Ilinca Cantacuzino. The Moonwell opens out onto the first-floor landing with a series of lamps connected by pendant arches. To the south is a fragment of the original staircase, retained to connect the half levels of the bathroom and the dressing room above. The bathroom is decorated in bespoke blue-green glazed tiles by Jay Bonner. The stepped surround to the bath tub is echoed by similar forms suspended from the corners of the ceiling, completing a cubistic, grotto-like effect.

Second Floor

The second floor, extending into the roof space, was given over to the couple's two children and their nanny. The curved dormers of the larger front bedroom are painted in different shades of blue while a full-height internal window in the south west corner admits borrowed light from the Solar Stair. The Jencksiana form of the dormer window is echoed by a built-in set of stepped drawers underneath, flanked by fitted wardrobes. A built-in set of wooden steps gives access to half-height galleries formed under the apex, influenced by similar children's spaces realised by Terry Farrell at his own home.

The smaller bedroom adjoining is decorated in shades of pale turquoise and cream. Integrated into its dormer window is a series of stepped niches for the display of objects. A convex fitted wardrobe is curved on plan to echo the stairwell behind and decorated with lily forms, a pun on their daughter's name, Lily. A matching set of steps leads to the half-height gallery. At the rear of the house is the nanny's room. To the south wall is a symmetrical array of built-in furniture with wardrobes and a series of drawers that step down to accommodate the central dormer window.

Basement

The basement rooms were amongst the last parts of the house to be planned. At the front is a garage, externally accessed from a ramp, with internal access to the staircase, and a self-contained flat. The side walls of the garage are lined with fitted cupboard units of standard design, fitted with double and triple doorknobs; they are thought to post-date the main phase of construction, that is 1979 to 1985. Attached to the front wall of the garage is an elaborate fitted dressing table and mirror originally constructed about 1976 to 1977 for Jencks and Keswick's previous residence at Park Walk Flat, Chelsea, and reset in its present position. It represents an early instance of the stagger and curve motif referred to by its designer as 'Jencksiana'. The self-contained flat comprises a living room, adjoining bedroom from which it is separated by a square opening with fitted shelves, and an en suite bathroom. In the vaulted service and storage accommodation to the front are a fitted kitchen of standard design and entrance hallway.

Extending out into the twin conservatories at the rear of the house are a children's play room and a garden room. The former, conceived as a 'room of doubles', is highly symmetrical, the external curve of the cylindrical stairwell being mirrored in the quadrant shape of the adjacent room. The built-in furniture is decorated with abstracted forms suggesting pairs of owls and cats. Built into the rear wall of the garden room is a symmetrical, stepped structure incorporating fitted book cases. The projecting rear bay of the house contains a Jacuzzi designed by Piers Gough with Charles Jencks. The Jacuzzi tub in terrazzo and bronze is a trompe l'oeil representation of an inverted dome, loosely based on Borromini's San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane in Rome. The stepped ceiling, clad in green tiles, is an inversion of the 'Jencksiana' motif. The spandrels have roundels with four season motifs designed by Jencks and made by Ilinca Cantacuzino.

SUBSIDIARY FEATURES

The garden patio is paved with square flagstones divided into quadrants by aluminium strips. They are framed by brick paving laid in a parquet pattern incorporating flagstones.

Pursuant to section 5A of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990, it is declared that the fitted storage units of the garage, the fitted kitchen and bathroom of the self-contained basement flat, and all plant are not of special architectural or historic interest.