JAUE2020-056: The Impact of Global Events to Environmental Awareness

Abstract

The paper will be analyzing and discussing the evolution of environmental awareness from 1900 until the present day, in particular how it translates to real-world application in architecture, how the general public reacted to it, why the trend shifted, and how we can use that knowledge to induce a shift in the current trend. The paper will be using quantitative data to form the trend through a time graph while using a qualitative method to do literature reviews on the subject. The analysis will be done on the graph, analyzing the trend, when it shifted, what caused it, and why is that the case. The paper found that the first change in awareness, the surge of Garden Cities, started as a direct result from E. Howard’s book and fueled by public’s distaste towards the industrial pollution, and the second change, the surge of sustainability, started after the war ended and the public experienced the recovery period, making the human impact on the environment visible. In both major changes, the visibility of human impact plays an important role in the shift in the trend. Similarly, the current pandemic has shown similar cause and effects as well, where the general public gets to see the impact of their daily routine, and what happened to the world once that routine is paused. The current situation has provided an effective springboard for further environmental development, now it’s up to the policymaker to utilize the situation for the betterment of the environment.