Chronograms of Architecture Symposium

The symposium brings together participants in the Chronograms of Architecture project, past, present, and future. An introduction to the project by Eszter Steierhoffer (director Jencks Foundation) and a lecture by Lily Jencks on Charles Jencks’ diagrams of architecture will be followed by a series of presentations and a panel discussion featuring contributors to the exhibition. Maria Fedorchenko (Architectural Association London) and Rotor co-founder Lionel Devlieger (UGent) will present their new chronograms, commissioned on the occasion of the exhibition at CIVA, and Francesca Hughes (Yale University) and Tatjana Schneider/MOULD (TU Braunschweig) will present their chronograms that were first exhibited at the Architectural Association and initially commissioned by e-flux Architecture and Jencks Foundation at The Cosmic House. Following a short break and guided tour of the exhibition, the symposium will continue with a presentation by Nana Biamah-Ofosu (Architectural Association London) of her work-in-progress Chronogram, which is to be presented in 2026 in Johannesburg, as well as a presentation by Sam Jacob (London / Vienna) about his recent explorations of Jencksian chronograms through large language models.

Chronograms of Architecture originated as a collaboration between the Jencks Foundation at The Cosmic House and e-flux architecture.

The symposium is the kick-off event for the exhibition 'Chronograms of Architecture', which will run from May 14 to September 28, 2025 at CIVA, Brussels. It showcases Jencks’ key diagrams, spanning from 1920 to 2000, along with eight newly commissioned diagrams by 8 teams of contemporary architects, researchers and graphic designers, reflecting on the historical moment that we live in today. While none can possibly 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 eight diagrams—perhaps eight streams of a map of now—provoke questions around the techno-optimism and techno-bureaucracy, feminist spatial practice and racial disparity, the ecological implications and productive conditions of architecture, and circular building strategies and the definition of the discipline.

Originally exhibited in London at the Architectural Association, the exhibition at CIVA in Brussels is its first step of a world tour: from Brussels to South Africa, then Asia, the US, and back to London, accumulating new chronograms of architecture along the way. For CIVA, two new chronograms have been commissioned: a „diagram of diagrams“ by London-based architect Maria Fedorchenko, and a history of circularity by Rotor-founder Lionel Devlieger. Exhibited chronograms include works by Pier Vittorio Aureli / Marson Korbi, Mario Carpo / Mark Garcia, Charles L. Davis II / Curry J. Hackett, Lionel Devlieger / Michaël Ghyoot / Adam Przywara / Karen Steukers / Arne Vande Capelle / Louise Vanhee, Maria Fedorchenko / Yeliz Abdurahman, Urtzi Grau / Francesca Hughes, Charles Jencks, MOULD, and Bryony Roberts / Abriannah Aiken.

The exhibition is accompanied by the publication Chronograms of Architecture, edited by Nick Axel, Silvia Franceschini, Nikolaus Hirsch, Lily Jencks, Eszter Steierhoffer; French/Dutch/English; managing editor: Carlo Menon; graphic designer: Boy Vereecken. Published by CIVA, e-flux architecture, Jencks Foundation at The Cosmic House and Spector Books (ISBN 978-3-95905-909-1).