• History and Ideas
  • Prehistory to Middle Ages
  • Renaissance, Baroque, Enlightenment
  • 19th Century
  • 20th Century
  • From Millennium to Olympics
• The Genius of Place
  • Design and Vision
  • Planning the Landscape
  • Management and Conservation
  • Historic Conservation
  • The Science of Landscape
  • Cities and Towns
  • Gardens and Parks
• The Power to Change
  • Climate Change
  • Sustainable Communities
  • Environment
  • Housing
  • Hunger
  • Transportation

20th Century

Humanity's impact on our planet developed at unprecedented speed in the twentieth century with far-reaching consequences.

Cities and roads sprawled across the map and technology gave us ready access to the most far flung landscapes – from the poles to the jungles to the Moon. Human population exploded, as did our powers to both create and destroy. 

The view of the Earth from space let us know how fragile life on Earth is and that same view became a symbol of the environmental movement. 

Modernism was the movement that dominated the 20th Century, and it emphasised purity of form and the importance of function.  Modernism was founded on a belief that design could change people's lives for the better. 

Continued