Chronograms of Architecture

Chronograms of Architecture takes its starting point from Charles Jencks’ iconic Evolutionary Tree diagrams tracing architecture and society’s pulsations between different ideals through time. These ‘chronograms’ – diagrams of the history of architecture – were first created in 1969 and focus on the 80 years from 1920 to 2000. Beyond visualising and classifying architectural styles and traditions, Jencks’ ever-evolving diagrams provided a visual tool to analyse, understand, and represent dynamic relations between architecture and society as they unfold.

In this spirit, Jencks Foundation at The Cosmic House and e-flux Architecture have commissioned six new chronograms to reckon with the present day. These new works interrogate techno-optimism and techno-bureaucracy, feminist spatial practice and disciplinary racism, and the ecological implications and productive conditions of architecture. Some of the new diagrams can be seen to fill in the undulating blanks in Jencks’ diagrams, while others offer an entirely different perspective on architectural discourse. Read alongside one another, they shed light on how we got to where we are now and suggest where architecture might be going.

The exhibition has been organised with the Architectural Association (AA) and is on show in the AA Front Members’ Room in Bedford Square. It features contributions by Pier Vittorio Aureli and Marson Korbi, Mario Carpo and Mark Garcia, Charles L Davis II and Curry J Hackett, Francesca Hughes and Urtzi Grau, MOULD, and Bryony Roberts and Abriannah Aiken, alongside original material from the Charles Jencks Archive.

Chronograms of Architecture was initiated and commissioned by Jencks Foundation at The Cosmic House in collaboration with e-flux Architecture and has been developed into an exhibition and symposium with the Architectural Association.

Chronograms of Architecture Symposium

The symposium will begin with a panel discussion between historians, archivists, and designers including Mark Wigley, Lily Jencks, and Ingrid Schroder to reflect on the history of Charles’ diagrams, before bringing together Chronograms of Architecture contributors Pier Vittorio Aureli and Marson Korbi, Mario Carpo and Mark Garcia, Charles L. Davis II and Curry J. Hackett, Francesca Hughes and Urtzi Grau, MOULD, and Bryony Roberts and Abriannah Aiken, with Nick Axel, Eszter Steierhoffer, and Manijeh Verghese as moderators and AA Tutors as respondents to collectively reflect on the method of diagramming architectural history both as an expressive visual format and as a critical tool of analysis.

Schedule:

11.00am – Introduction by Lily Jencks
11.15am – Chronograms: Charles Jencks’ diagrams
Mark Wigley, Mark Garcia and Ingrid Schroder, chaired by Lily Jencks
12.30pm – Lunch
1.30pm – Projections into History
Pier Vittorio Aureli and Marson Korbi, Mario Carpo and Mark Garcia, and Bryony Roberts and Abriannah Aiken, chaired by Eszter Steierhoffer
3.00pm – Tea/ Coffee break
3.15pm – Cross-sections of the Now
Curry J. Hackett, Francesca Hughes and Urtzi Grau, and MOULD, chaired by Nick Axel
4.45pm – Tea/ Coffee break
5.00pm – Concluding roundtable
All participants, chaired by Manijeh Verghese

The symposium will be followed by the Chronograms of Architecture exhibition opening from 6.30pm onwards in the Front Members' Room.