Title & Author:

Hunt the symbol / [presented by] Charles Jencks (Charles Jencks).

Publication:

London, England : Pidgeon Digital, 1985.

Description:

1 online resource (1 video file (34 minutes)) : sound, color

Notes:
Charles Jencks 1985 -- Egyptian Pyramids -- Thomas Tresham's Triangular Lodge, Northamptonshire, UK -- Hong Kong & Shanghai Bank, Hong Kong. Norman Foster -- Wu Hall, Princeton University, Venturi Rauch Scott-Brown -- Rucellai Palace, Via Della Vigna Nuova, Florence, Italy By Leon Battista Alberti -- Elemental House, Los Angeles, California By Charles Jencks. First Pavilion -- Elemental House, Los Angeles, California By Charles Jencks. Garage Pavilion -- Elemental House, Los Angeles, California By Charles Jencks. Terra Pavilion -- Elemental House, Los Angeles, California By Charles Jencks. Aqua Pavilion -- Elemental House, Los Angeles, California By Charles Jencks. Air Pavilion -- Thematic House, London, UK, By Charles Jencks. Side Elevation -- Thematic House, London, UK, By Charles Jencks. Cosmic Oval -- Thematic House, London, UK, By Charles Jencks. Ground Floor Plan -- Thematic House, London, UK, By Charles Jencks. Winter Room -- Thematic House, London, UK, By Charles Jencks. Spring Room -- Thematic House, London, UK, By Charles Jencks. Summer Room -- Thematic House, London, UK, By Charles Jencks. Indian Summer Room -- Thematic House, London, UK, By Charles Jencks. Central Staircase -- Thematic House, London, UK, By Charles Jencks. Architectural Library -- Gaudi's Sagrada Familia Cathedral, Barcelona.

Summary:

American Charles Jencks took degrees first in English in 1961 and then in architecture (BA and MA) at Harvard University, before coming to Britain where he acquired a doctorate under Reyner Banham at London University's Bartlett School of Architecture. There followed a stream of books - "Meaning In Architecture", "Architecture 2000", "Modern Movements", "Le Corbusier" and "Adhocism". In the 1970s, discerning a style breaking with the Modern movement, he named it Post-Modernism and published a book and many articles describing its characteristics. He has since discerned, written and lectured worldwide about several other composite isms, and has become the most popular explainer of later 20th century styles. Now he looks for symbolism in architecture, something that used to be quite common in the West when religion held sway, but lacking in our present-day commercial and agnostic society. People like Venturi, he says, who support a symbolic architecture, believe in "the decorated shed" where signs are added to a finished building. Whereas Jencks maintains that the structure, the construction, the history of the building, the desires of the inhabitant, should all be woven into a totality, using some kind of semantic language such as that provided by the five Orders of architecture. In his talk, he describes how, in his own work, he has tried to order the building site and the different parts of the building into an overall story, so that one can walk through them and play the game of Hunt The Symbol.

Subject:

Symbolism in architecture.
Symbolisme en architecture.

Added entries:

Jencks, Charles, narrator.