Chronograms of Architecture

Contemporary architecture emerges from a richly diverse and highly tuned architecture culture; a constructed discourse, with a constantly written and rewritten history. In an attempt to grasp the historical moment he was living in, Charles Jencks, the legendary father of postmodernism, developed his ‘evolutionary stream’ drawings. These drawings laid out six contrasting ideologies that led him to categorize all the ‘-isms’ of present, past, and future architectural culture. Architects, buildings, social trends, and technical innovations were plotted on a timeline in relation to these streams. What resulted is the now-iconic image of a series of undulating blobs tracing architecture and society’s pulsations between different forces through time.

Chronograms of Architecture showcases Jencks’ key diagrams, most of which span from 1920 to 2000, along with a growing set of new commissions by teams of contemporary architects, historians, and researchers reflecting on the historical moment that we live in today. While none present a total account, in their own way they each reveal critical and urgent ways of seeing, understanding, and working in the architectural culture of the present. These nine diagrams provoke questions around techno-optimism and techno-bureaucracy, feminist and emancipatory spatial practice, the ecological implications and productive conditions of architecture, circular building strategies, racial disparity, and the definition of the discipline.

First exhibited in London and Brussels, Chronograms of Architecture continues its tour around the world to the Graduate School of Architecture in Johannesburg, South Africa. This edition presents one new commission by Wolff Architects that traces gardening as an emancipatory spatial practice across postcolonial and decolonizing contexts. The exhibition is accompanied by a series of diagrams by students from the GSA’s Architectural History and Theory module, convened by Heidi Lu. These drawings map the students’ interests within a framework of ideologies and forces and situate their work in a chronology of architecture culture.

Chronograms of Architecture is a collaboration between e-flux Architecture and the Jencks Foundation at The Cosmic House within the context of their research program “‘isms and ‘wasms.”

Contributions: Pier Vittorio Aureli and Marson Korbi / Charles L. Davis II and Curry Hackett / Lionel Devlieger, Michael Ghyoot, Adam Przywara, Karen Steukers, Arne Vande Capelle, and Louise Vanhee / Maria Fedorchenko and Yeliz Abdurahman / Feminist Spatial Practices / Nathalie Frankowski & Cruz Garcia / WAI Architecture Think Tank / Mark Garcia and Steven Hutt / Urtzi Grau and Francesca Hughes / Charles Jencks / MOULD / Bryony Roberts and Abriannah Aiken / Wolff Architects.

Curatorial team: Nick Axel, Nikolaus Hirsch, Lily Jencks, Heidi Lu, Anya Smirnova, Eszter Steierhoffer.

Graphic Design: Fred Swart.

Thanks: Nana Biamah-Ofosu, Boitumelo Mazibuko, Denise Fouche, Ngillan Faal, Mark Raymond, FADA Gallery.

Chronograms of Architecture was previously exhibited at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London from October 20 to December 9, 2023, and at CIVA in Brussels from May 14 to September 28, 2025.

The exhibition is generously supported by Jencks Foundation at The Cosmic House.