McHarg’s Design with Nature fused ecological philosophy with applied planning methods

Evidence

Published in 1969, Design with Nature joined philosophy and hands-on planning, the two key elements of McHarg’s response to the problem of urban growth. In the philosophical chapters, McHarg criticized the commodity view of land, assailed the hubris of western attitudes toward nature, considered the significance of human dependence on natural processes, pondered the true meaning of creativity, explored the forms of life, and argued for a more ecological understanding of “health.” The hands-on chapters showed how McHarg had applied the principles of ecological planning to projects of different scales, from the routing of a highway to the development of a metropolitan region. He described in detail the Philadelphia open-space study and the Plan for the Valleys. — Adam Rome, The Bulldozer in the Countryside, 712

Categorization

• DEFINE: Establishes what Design with Nature actually is and what ecological planning meant as practiced.
• XREF: connects to: Ian McHarg made ‘natural processes’ the central lexicon of postwar planning — Adam Rome, The Bulldozer in the Countryside:…, 702; The Plan for the Valleys zoned by ecological hazard and beauty attributes — Adam Rome, The Bulldozer in the Countryside:…, 708; McHarg’s appeal lay in promising environmental fixes without wrenching social change — Adam Rome, The Bulldozer in the Countryside:…, 714