The archive primarily covers the period from the early 1960s when Jencks started writing about architecture to his death in 2019. Jencks did not consistently retain papers so there are gaps in the collection and some more personal material remains with the family. The Jencks Foundation sees The Cosmic House as an integral part of Charles Jencks' Archive, and so, the fixtures and fittings within The Cosmic House are also included. Similarly Charles Jencks' extensive library is included as part of the Archive, as this is key to understanding Jencks intellectual life and is working methods.
The archive includes
-Drawings, plans and models, photographic materials and documentation around both the creation and the refurbishment of The Cosmic House, the Garden of Cosmic Speculation and Charles' Jencks other architectural and landscape design projects.
-Charles Jencks' writings; includes early writings (including both school work and fiction), Charles Jencks' publications and documentation relating to various publications; lecture notes and documentation relating to lecturing, and unpublished writings.
-Documentation around Jencks' role in the setting up and running of the Maggie's Centres and other work activities such as acting as juror on architectural competitions and selections committees.
-Materials used by Jencks to inform his work including his extensive library of publications and press clippings relating to architecture, art, post modernism and science; research notes, drafts, correspondence and other documentation relating to Jencks writings and his relationships with architects and writers.
-Jencks audio-visual collection including his large slide library and other photographic material, as well as a small amount of video and audio material.
-Charles Jencks' artwork and a small amount of miscellaneous, mainly administrative, material.
-colour slides of Maggie by the Trompe l'oeil painting by Dorothy Girouard in their Chelsea flat, and colour printed versions of the same images
-folder for FM Productions California used to hold a large number of photographs including b&w prints and polaroids and colour prints, mostly photographs used to illustrate the A+U article
-manuscript notes headed 'Architect Versus Critic' with an outline of the article and headings ticked off, including a to-do list at the bottom; written on the reverse of handwritten notes about The Thematic House
-photocopies of illustrations headed 'Die Lufft' and 'Die Erde', annotated on reverse 'Cesare Ripa, Baroque & Rococo Pictorial Imagery, Dover'
-cutting from Building Design 10 Aug 1984, review by Sheena Wilson of Godfrey Golzen's 'How Architects Get Work'
-leaflet from the Architecture Press titled 'Avoid litigation! 3 books to keep you out of trouble'
-photocopy of the Jencksiana font
-b&w photograph of the Elemental House
-sheet of 16 slides showing various furniture and designs by Charles
-sheet of 14 slides showing various furniture and designs by Charles
-colour and b&w photographs of furniture designed by Charles for the Chelsea flat and 19 Landsdowne Walk [some are loose and some are glued to sheets of plain paper]
-typescript letter from Officina Alessi enclosing colour slides of the tea and coffee set and giving news of its presentation in New York and Milan, 1983
-manuscript letter on Patrizia Scarzello Architect headed paper regarding the Alessi collaboration, 1983
-typescript document on yellow and white lined paper titled 'The Thematic House The Matic How See Design Credits'
-manuscript to-do list relating to 19 Lansdowne Walk
-typescript on pink paper headed 'Programme for an Anglo-Chinese Bed' with pencil sketches
-pencil and coloured pencil drawings of a bed
-copy letter from Charles to William on UCLA headed paper sending a symbolic programmes and drawings, 1985
-copy letter from Charles to Caroline and William regarding the design for the bed
-printed proofs of line drawings
-pen and ink drawing on tracing paper used as illustration on the RIBA poster
-poster for a lecture by Charles at RIBA titled 'Post-Modernism - the true inheritor of modernism', 1982 [folded]