So ran the sentiments of Doris Day in the mid-1950s, just half a century ago from where we stand now. This was a time of seeming confidence in the present and the future, that “whatever will be” will be fine. “You’ve never had it so good”, British Prime Minister Macmillan declared. In the West, this was a time of great optimism, dominated by the idea that we can improve ourselves and our environment, and that social, economic, intellectual and spiritual advance can all be planned for. The signs of this rational, technical approach to the problems confronting us could be seen in every area of society – while Frank Lloyd Wright was designing houses which would blend into the environment and Utzon was putting finishing touches to the sail designs of the Sydney Opera House, automobile engineers were busy refining aerodynamics so that a car would move as effortlessly as a bird through the air. While architects were designing ‘palaces for the masses’ – the high rise buildings that came to dominate city skylines in the 1960s - aeronautics engineers were beginning work on Concorde, the plane that would revolutionise air travel. Furniture and appliance manufacturers were producing sleek, mathematically symmetrical designs for tables, beds, cupboards, and cookers and “the lucky housewife” was greeted with one new technical innovation after another in the kitchen.