The Twentieth-Century Historic Thematic Framework
The Twentieth-Century Historic Thematic Framework, released earlier this year, is an outcome of the Conservation Institute's Conserving Modern Architecture Initiative.
The framework was commissioned by the Getty Conservation Institute working in collaboration with the ICOMOS Twentieth-Century Heritage International Scientific Committee. Authors are Susan Marsden and Peter Spearritt with contributions from Leo Schmidt, Sheridan Burke, Gail Ostergren, Jeff Cody, and Chandler McCoy.
The framework identifies the principal social, technological, political, and economic drivers that shaped the twentieth century globally, and is distilled into ten succinct historic themes:
Rapid Urbanization and the Growth of Large Cities
Accelerated Scientific and Technological Development
Mechanized and Industrialized Agriculture
World Trade and Global Corporations
Transportation Systems and Mass Communications
Internationalization, New Nation States, and Human Rights
Conserving the Natural Environment, Buildings, and Landscapes
Popular Culture and Tourism
Religious, Educational, and Cultural Institutions
War and Its Aftermath
The publication is free to download and is encouraged to be used and adapted by anyone involved in heritage conservation or in heritage research and education around the world. It can assist in the survey and assessment of places within the context of the twentieth century at a local, national and international level, as a tool to aid many forms of research and analysis and in the sustainability and conservation of the heritage of the twentieth century.
The Grain Silos in the West Australian wheatbelt town of Merredin – an excellent example of twentieth century mechanized and industrialized agriculture (and now also part of the PUBLIC Silo art trail)
