In the 1920s, a group of London doctors worried that labour-saving gadgets such as vacuums and washing machines were leaving housewives with empty lives and creating what they called suburban neurosis. Their answer was the Peckham Experiment, which ran from 1926 to 1950 in a mixed-income neighbourhood in south London. Its centrepiece, the Pioneer Health Centre designed by Owen Williams in 1935, had a swimming pool, a dance floor, a creche, a theatre and a gymnasium. Families living within pram-pushing distance could join for a shilling a week and get a yearly medical check, with no compulsory classes and no locked doors. At its busiest, more than 770 people used it daily, mostly housewives and children. The aim was to see whether health could grow from a good environment, with the social space meant to keep mothers well enough to raise healthy children.

Hampi is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Karnataka, India, with more than 1,600 surviving remains spread over 4,100 hectares. It was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire from 1336 to 1565. Travellers from Persia and Portugal described it as a prosperous, wealthy and grand city with temples, markets and farms along the Tungabhadra River. By 1500 it was estimated to be the world's second-largest city after Beijing, and probably India's richest at the time. In 1565 a coalition of Muslim sultanates defeated the Vijayanagara Empire, its capital was conquered and destroyed, and the city was left in ruins. Hampi remains a religious centre, with the active Virupaksha Temple at its heart.