Design with Nature

by Ian L. McHarg

Book, 1971

Description

"In presenting us with a vision of organic exuberance and humandelight, which ecology and ecological design promise to open up forus, McHarg revives the hope for a better world." --LewisMumford ". . . important to America and all the rest of the world in ourstruggle to design rational, wholesome, and productive landscapes."--Laurie Olin, Hanna Olin, Ltd. "This century's most influential landscape architecture book."--Landscape Architecture ". . . an enduring contribution to the technical literature oflandscape planning and to that unfortunately small collection ofwritings which speak with emotional eloquence of the importance ofecological principles in regional planning." --Landscape and UrbanPlanning In the twenty-five years since it first took the academic world bystorm, Design With Nature has done much to redefine the fields oflandscape architecture, urban and regional planning, and ecologicaldesign. It has also left a permanent mark on the ongoing discussionof mankind's place in nature and nature's place in mankind withinthe physical sciences and humanities. Described by one enthusiasticreviewer as a "user's manual for our world," Design With Natureoffers a practical blueprint for a new, healthier relationshipbetween the built environment and nature. In so doing, it providesnothing less than the scientific, technical, and philosophicalfoundations for a mature civilization that will, as Lewis Mumfordecstatically put it in his Introduction to the 1969 edition,"replace the polluted, bulldozed, machine-dominated, dehumanized,explosion-threatened world that is even now disintegrating anddisappearing before our eyes."… (more)

Library's review

Published for The American Museum of Natural History. Writen under a grant from The Conservation Foundation of Washington, D.C. 1967

from cover

'...may well abe one of the most important books of the century, a turning point in man's view and treatment of his environment.'--Wolf von Eckardt

Ian
Show More
McHarg, an outspoken critic of the traditional notion that urban development must be imposed upon the landsacape, regardless of the ecological conwequences, in Design with Nature, proves that necessary man-made structures can be accommodated within the existing natural order.

'Here are the foundations for a civilization that will replace the polluted, bulldozed, machine-dominated, dehumanized, explosion-threatened world that is even now disintegrating and disappearing before our eyes. In presenting us with a vision of organic exuberance and human delight, which ecology and ecological design promise to open up for us, McHarg revives the hope for a better world.'--Lewis Mumford

'A book which n my opinion will be a permanent landmark for the age.'--Frank B. Egler

Ian L. McHarg, teacher, practicing landscape architect, planner, writer and lecturer, devotes the largest part of his energies to the Department of Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning at the University of Pennsylvania, of which he is founder and Chairman. He is also a partner of the office of Wallace, McHarg, Roberts and Todd, architects, landscape architects, city an regional planners, which has employed the ecological planning method in several studies, including The Minneapolis-St. Paul Metropolitan Region, The Staten Island Study, A Comprehensivae Landscape Plan for Washington, D.C., The Inner Harbor Plan for Baltimore, and the Lower Manhattan Plan.

Contents

Introduction
City and Countryside
Sea and Survival
The Plight
A Step Forward
The Cast and the Capsule
Nature in the Metropolis
On Values
A Response to Values
The World is a Capsule
Porcesses as Values
The Naturalists
The River Basin
The Metropolitan Region
Process and Form
The City: Process and Form
The City: Health and Pathology
Prospect
Show Less

Publication

Doubleday & Company,Inc. New York

Awards

National Book Award (Finalist — 1971)
Page: 0.8578 seconds