Ian McHarg made ‘natural processes’ the central lexicon of postwar planning
Evidence
For the landscape architect and regional planner Ian McHarg, the arguments against building on wetlands, steep hillsides, and floodplains all exemplified a single great insight, the need to respect “natural processes.” Indeed, McHarg almost singlehandedly made that phrase part of the lexicon of planning. In his classes at the University of Pennsylvania, in his speeches and writings, in his work as a partner in a landscape architecture and planning firm, he argued that development should be restricted to “areas that were intrinsically suitable, where dangers were absent and natural processes unharmed.” But McHarg did not simply call for public officials to set where-not-to-build standards. He argued for a new way of building. — Adam Rome, The Bulldozer in the Countryside, 702
Categorization
- XREF: connects to: McHarg’s Design with Nature fused ecological philosophy with applied planning methods — Adam Rome, The Bulldozer in the Countryside:…, 712; Process philosophy claims mind and nature share one substance of events — Val Plumwood, Feminism and the Mastery of Nature, 480; Postwar land-use activism uniquely grounded protection in ecological process arguments — Adam Rome, The Bulldozer in the Countryside:…, 718 (+2 more)
Broader Connections
- Postwar land-use activism uniquely grounded protection in ecological process arguments
#corroborates(0.82) — Adam Rome, The Bulldozer in the Countryside, 718 - A federal subsidy program enabled McHarg’s planned community at Woodlands
#corroborates(0.80) — Adam Rome, The Bulldozer in the Countryside, 1062 - Process philosophy claims mind and nature share one substance of events
#expands(0.75) — Val Plumwood, Feminism and the Mastery of Nature, 480 - The organic worldview persists underlying 20th-century ecology and process philosophy.
#expands(0.72) — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature, 1065