The Cosmic House, Kensington

Cosmic House in Holland Park, Kensington, is a Grade I listed building with Historic England, located at Lansdowne Walk. It was designed by the late Charles Jencks in collaboration with other postmodern architects. Charles Jencks was still working shortly before his death, overseeing improvements to the garden at Maggie’s Inverness. His London home has become a museum of his archives. His daughter, Lily, herself an architect in her own right, has been inspirational in the creative designs that IP Surfaces undertook.  

Our Journey

The pieces shown consist of circular German Dietfurt limestone that the team at IP Surfaces have waterjet-cut to create a double-jointed circle and 2 separate circles each with individual laser-etched artwork that reflects Charles Jencks’ interest he held in science and cosmology. Each piece was carefully produced by our craftsmen working with the limestone and stencil lettering producing striking designs with 3 RAL colour reds used on the surface and 1 of the colours around the edge of the circle. Thematic House remains a residence but also has become a publicly accessible archive of both Jencks’ own work, as a landscape designer and scholar, and of drawings, letters and models by Norman Foster, Richard Rogers, Zaha Hadid and other Maggie’s Centre architects. Jencks and his late wife Maggie founded the cancer care charity. In situ photography: Hardscape and Nick Harrison FLI