modern planning such as the brutalist Ha)'\vard Gallery or Milton Keynes City Centre are beginning to acquire a period charm. Even those features of the lanclscape which seem most monstrous can eventually be viewed with excitement, if not love. How about Spaghetti Junction: isn't itterrible, ingenious, ghastly and sublime' High on our list of motivations when we consider how to mould the legacy of the 20th century must be the fact that we value and admire certain contributions. As high or higher as a motivation is the passion with which we despise parts of our inheritance, and desperately wish to see them meet their doom. But these values are not timeless, and understanding how they can shift in future is essential. We are thinking for the generations far ahead, not just our own. Tastes change, interpretations change, distance lends enchantment to the view; and the truth is that none of us today will be around next time a century ends to give our views. The dark association of tower blocks with close communities dispersed may not be remembered in a century. P ople will not think of mountain pasture every time they look at sterile forestry plantations. Is there a possibility that one day conservationists will manage to like the smoked glass mass of Euston Station, turning a blind eye to its dark association with the demolition of a Neo-Classical masterpiece? It is important that we consider carefully these matters of essentially aesthetic values, but vital that we also try to test what represents outstandingly significant historical change. Without this notion of the processes which changed lives so radically in the 20th centu1y, we will not identify some of the most crucial reminders of our history to carry fo1ward: How would the brave new world of Nationalisation be represented if all the post-war collieries were closed and only smaller, quainter Victorian ancestors were museumisecl? Doesn't the transformation in conditions wrought by the council house have more claim to our attention than more visible architectural style? We have little scholarship at our disposal to inform us about 20th-centu1y environmental history. Hoskins stopped dead his story of the making of the landscape at the turning of the centmy before. Only architectural historians seem to have found exciting food for thought, ranging from authors of major architectural surveys to the cataloguers of DOCOMOMO and the researchers of the Twentieth Century Society. Few broader overviews are yet available. Cambridge University Press brought out a sequel to its well known Context65 March2000 llanwern Steelworks, built in the 1960s, one of the entirely new scale of industrial enterprises which grew out of the 20th century, occupying tracts of land the size of cities. Photo: Crown Copyright, Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales. aerial archaeology volumes in 1990, Britain's Changing Environment.from tbe Air. Kenneth Hudson wrote about TbeArcbaeologyof tbe Consumer Society in 1983. Luckily, a new survey by Michael Stratton and Barrie Trincler, to be published by Routledge/Span in August 2000, Twentieth Centurylndustrial Arcbaeology, promises to be informative. Such sources must be studied carefully to make progress. So many historical phenomena have not had an easily grasped expression in the landscape or built heritage. The spiralling development of telecommunications could hardly be a more significant change in culture, yet what is its built heritage? The most important elements are in fact anonymous exchanges in back streets, road-side switch boxes, mobile phone masts, lines of telegraph poles, none of which would clamour for conservationists' attentions or offer much to help one understand the past. Industrial change throughout the century was extraordinary, but most of it from 1900 onwards used buildings which were multi-functional boxes unreflective of industrial processes or technical changes taking place inside. The growth of the megalopolis may be apparent in social and employment networks, but itsphysical expression is subtler and more difficult to recognise. What will the21stcentwyholdforthe landscape? Perhaps there will be momentous change continuing to accelerate. Perhaps development will slow as our crazy confidence and inebriation with new power dissolves. It isat present hard to see the possibility of all-pervasive architectural movements in the 21st century. It is difficult to imagine a power for landscape change as dramatic as the invention of the car. Theplanningprocess, eco-warriors and increasing environmental consciousness may well mean that change within the next hundred years or more isdampened clown. Our main task for some years forward may well be to understand the tumultuous and extraordina1y century we have left behind. Dr Peter \Vakeli11 is an inspector of Ancienl Mo1111me11/sa11d Hisloric B11ildi1lf!,Swith Cacho: \.'(le/sb 1-fisloric 1\!lon11ments. ADVERTISEMENT J & J Sharpe Lime Products We produce and supply materials for use on traditional buuildings. Hydraulic Lime Devon Stockists of St. Astier hydraulic lime. NHL 2, 3.5 & 5. Mature Lime Putty Matured for a minimum of 3 months. Ready Mixed Mortars Coarse stuff - Renders - Plasters LimeWash In a wide range of colours. Oak Laths Riven and sawn. Woodside Merton, Okehampton Devon, Tel/Fax 01805 603587 33
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