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Charles Jencks (born 1939) is an American architectural theorist, landscape architect and designer. His books on the history and criticism of Modernism and Postmodernism were widely read in architectural circles and beyond.Born in Baltimore to a Scottish mother from Fife, he first studied English Literature at Harvard University, later gaining an MA in architecture from the Graduate School of Design in 1965. He also has a PhD in Architectural History from University College, London. In the mid-sixties Jencks moved to Scotland where he has resided ever since.

Although not coining the term postmodern, his 1977 book The Language of Post-Modern Architecture is often regarded as having popularised its use in relation to architecture.

Jencks has become a leading figure in British landscape architecture. His landscape work is inspired by fractals, genetics, chaos theory, waves and solitons. In Edinburgh, Scotland, he designed the Landform at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art in collaboration with Terry Farrell and Duncan Whatmore of Terry Farrell and Partners. These themes are expanded in his own private garden, the Garden of Cosmic Speculation, at Portrack House near Dumfries. He is also a furniture designer and sculptor, completing the DNA Sculpture in London's Kew Gardens in 2003.

His late wife, Maggie Keswick Jencks was the founder of the Maggie's cancer caring centres, for which Jencks has designed gardens, and the author of a book on Chinese Gardens.

This author page uses material from the Wikipedia article "Charles Jencks", which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0