Knowledge Café 4.3: Rural landscapes of the 20th Century

During the 20th Century, rural landscapes all over the world underwent rapid transformations as a result of many factors - including new socio-political and economic conditions, new agricultural practices and the mechanization of agriculture - resulting in radical transformations of land uses and in the introduction of new infrastructures and facilities, necessary for the storage and distribution of an ever increasing amount of products. Based on the existing documents and bibliography relevant to the topic (ICOMOS-IFLA, Principles concerning rural landscapes as heritage, 2017; ICOMOS-ISC20C, Madrid-New Delhi Document. Approaches to the conservation of twentieth-century cultural heritage, 2017; Meeus, Wijermans, Vroom, 1990; Pungetti, Kruse, 2010; Scazzosi, 2018) this Knowledge Cafe aims to analyze how, during the 20th Century, new rural landscapes were created, assuming a historic and cultural significance as witnesses of this crucial period. Significant examples are the land reclamation activities in Europe, the agrarian reforms, the new facilities and transportation networks aimed to support the expanding productions, the new irrigation schemes for agricultural development in inland areas, the realization of model towns. New rural settlements, indeed, were created under totalitarian regimes, whether inside their country or in their colonies, while, after World War II, new settlements were conceived for resettling farmers -often referring to vernacular architecture and rationalist architecture as a model - as a response to the increasing discrepancies between industrialized and rural areas. Finally, it is worth reflecting on the several theoretical proposals for new agrarian societies, in the wake of international examples as the Unite d’Explotation Agricole by Le Corbusier or the Broadacre City by F.L. Wright. Beyond the comparative analysis of rural landscapes of the 20th Century, the final objective will be also to discuss strategies for their sustainable management. (This contribution is developed in collaboration with ICOMOS-ISC20C and ICOMOS Italy working group on 20th Century)