Land - Design With Nature

8/9/2019 Land - Design With Nature

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Design WithNature

Sam Coutts


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City andCountryside

The books openingchapter starts with the author,Ian L. McHarg, explaining

why he wrote the book. It ismy investigation into adesign with nature: the placeof nature in mans world, mysearch for a way of lookingand a way of doing. He goeson to tell that the book givesthe best evidence he couldfind, but he believes thatstraight facts and evidence istoo cold. Because of this he

has decided to write the bookfrom the perspective of hislife and adventures.

He dives right into hislife explaining where he grewup, between the cities ofGlasgow and Firth of Clyde.From the rest of his

descriptions of the place it isinferred that this is in themiddle of Scotland. McHargdescribes growing up in thetime of the Depression. He

remembers nothing butdreary gloom besides thesparse celebration forlaunching a new ship into theBritish Navy.

McHarg decides thatthe gloomy town of Glasgowis not for him as it is paintedwith industrial toil. Hedescribes a town near itcalled Edinburgh that was

beautiful countryside instead.He says, There are cities thatproduce more stimulusbutit is rare when they areproducts of the industrialrevolution or its after math.

At age sixteenMcHarg was first introducedto the idea of LandscapeArchitecture and took to itimmediately. He wanted tohelp the people in theindustrial cities realize thebeauty of nature and helpgive back to them. Shortlyafter he decided this he wentinto the British Army as anofficer of the 2ndIndependentParachute Brigade Group,deployed in Italy. Hedescribes being bombed andall hell breaking loose. Theonly times he can remembercomplete peace was when hewas in nature.

After the war McHargattended Harvard for fouryears so he could officiallybe called a professionallandscape architect and city


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planner. He then returned toScotland to rediscover theland. He returned to Scotlandwith some dreams, someparchments, a wife, son and

pulmonary tuberculosis. Sohe spent six months in ahospital outside ofEdinburgh.

After his quickdescription of his life,McHarg tells that we neednature as much in the city asin the countryside. He is afirm believer in having natureinside a city and he says it is

not a choice of either the cityor the countryside: both areessential.

Sea andSurvival

McHarg opens thechapter by describing howsociety complains about somany different problems, andhow long it takes to fix them.He tells that if society were tojust embrace the idea ofnature as an arena of lifethen we would find that somedifficult problems alreadyhave ready solutions. Hisexample for this ideology isthe study of the New JerseyShore.

McHarg starts thelesson with a briefintroduction of the shorelineof the Netherlands. Hedescribes how the sand dune

beaches save the countryfrom the fierce sea. He alsopraises the help of dunegrass. Dune grass isdescribed as a very hardyplant that can live in the mostinhabitable environments.

In the case of the NewJersey Shore the sand dunesare created by storm wavesbreaking in relatively deep

water offshore. Once thesesubmarine sand bars aredeveloped and rise above thesurface of the sea the windblows the sand into primaryand secondary dunes. Aswater hits these sand bars atan angle they are usuallyelongated on the back side ofthe bar, in New Jerseys case,the southern tip.

As the dunes form thecolonies of dune grasses,thickets, and other greeneriesstart to inhabit the bar. Thetype of vegetation beinggrown on the bar depends onwhich side of the bar it isgrowing on. Some plants willonly grow on the primarydunes, some only on the backdune or bay shores. Its alldue to the soil salinity, saltspray and sand movement ofthat area. In New Jersey theback dunes usually have redcedar-pine woodlands andhigh mesic thicket-beachheather.


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McHarg explainssome conclusions we candraw from the analysis ofsand dunes. We canunderstand that sand bars and

dunes are not permanentstructures and can beconstructed and/ordeconstructed fairly easilyand quickly. The knowledgethat the New Jersey Shore isnot a certain land mass as isthe Piedmont of Coastal Plainis of some importance.Groundwater is hugeimportance in dunes, if the

water table is too low thesupporting plants on the dunewill die and the dune will bewashed away. Different partsof the dunes are acceptable todevelop while others arecompletely out of thequestion. The back dune isthe most suitable fordevelopment; however theprimary dune and bay shoreshould not be even touched.However these principles hadnot been developed in timefor March 1962 when aviolent storm destroyeddunes all along the NewJersey Shore and caused $80million in damages.

The Plight

The Plight that

McHarg refers to is a doublemeaning. His personal plightwas away from Scotland forthe thought of things wilderthan Scotland. But also itrefers to the plight of thehuman race into cities.Taking over country land anddeveloping it intoindustrialized wastelands.McHarg describes it as the

problem of the place ofnature in mans world wasnot a beleaguered nature, butmerely the local deprivationthat was the industrial city.McHarg describes cities asimprisoning gray areas thatencircle the center. Thecities are seen by thelandscape architect assmudges of smoke on the

horizon, and a desolate desertabsent of any art what soever.

McHarg doesnt evenagree with the way our ruralland is developed. Ruralland persists aroundmetropolis, not because we


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have managed the land morewisely but because it islarger, more resistant tomans smear, more resilient.He also says, in the great

plains nature persists only inthe meandering stream andthe flood plain forest.

In other words, manhas destroyed most of naturethrough out America andeven the areas that we thinkof as wild and untamed havebeen changed from theiroriginal, natural beauty. Theonly way to prevent this from

happening while stilldeveloping land is to buildusing natural materials anduse gardens as forms of art.McHarg does not think it isimpossible to keep pushingour humanity further intonew ages while still being inharmony with nature. Histhoughts are, in order toachieve the best of bothworlds it is necessary toretreat from polar extremes.

A StepForward

The Jersey Shoreexample was a problem witha disastrous ending, but notvery complex. This chapter

looks at a problem with in asystem that is much lessdramatic but more complex,the highway. When highwaysare designed they are basedpurely on cost-effectiveness,the designers could care lessabout the scars on the earthand through cities that theymake. Who are as arrogant,as unmoved by public values

and concerns as highwaycommissions and engineers?

Interstate highwaysshould maximize public andprivate benefits. The topthree goals should be:increasing the facility,convenience, pleasure and


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safety of traffic; safeguardingand enhancing land, water,air and biotic resources;generating new productiveland uses and sustaining or

enhancing existing ones.McHarg has come up with alist of new suggested criteriafor interstate highway routeselection. He includes pricebenefits and savings as wellas what it would cost.

When the questionarises should the highwayselect the Greenbelt for itsroute in order to reveal it to

the public or should it servethe Greenbelt, but avoid thedestruction of transaction?The answer comes withweighing the social benefits.If the area has lots of naturalbeauty, expose it to thepublic, however, if it is theonly natural beauty for miles,conserve it and let themillions of people that livearound it enjoy.

In the example ofStaten Island, the socialbenefits are compared withthe physiographicobstructions and two mapsare made and aligned witheach other to find therecommended minimumsocial cost alignment of ahighway through the island.After the Tri-StateTransportation Commissionwas presented the idea itreversed its decision totransect the Greenbelt.

The Cast andthe Capsule

McHarg opens thechapter with two differentstories, one which heborrowed from a colleagueslecture, and one of his own.The first comes to theconclusion, these blemisheshe recognizes as the citiesand works of man and asks,is man but a planetarydisease? The second talksof nuclear holocaust and if itwere to happen, the first ideathey would have is nexttime, no brains. Thesequotes bring up the problemsbehind man not being inharmony with nature and thedamage it can cause. Manthinks of itself as divine andthe only reason we are here isto conquer nature and relatewith god. McHargs ideas arethat humans are just anotherevolutionary process in thehistory of earth, and we arehere to live in harmony withnature. Were they aware


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that, at least inthermodynamic terms, theworld consisted of a workingpartnership between the sunand the leaf as man looked

onirrelevant, smilingbenignly upon the scene,secure in the illusion of hisprimacy?

Nature in theMetropolis

When asked to adviseon which lands thePhiladelphia metropolitanregion should be selected foropen space, McHarg felt itmore suitable to consider theplace of nature in themetropolis. With thisconcept of having nature within a big city the possibilitiesof harmonious living expandexponentially. The key tofinding the appropriate areasfor open space is not within aformula. For example, for apopulation of six-million,give one acre of open space

for every thirty persons.Instead, find discrete aspectsof natural processes that carrytheir own values andprohibitions. However,

some open spaces arenaturally best for agriculture;these spaces should bedubbed high social value andnot developed on.

On Values

The values that arediscussed in the beginning ofthe chapter are geared moretowards the lack of valuesthat man had for land whenAmerica was first discovered.Men burnt prairies to theground and killed herds ofanimals. This was the firstmajor impact of man on thecontinent during theaboriginal occupation.

In Central and SouthAmerica different culturesarose. The Mayans andAztecs, among others, linkedeffective hunting andgathering with simpleagricultural techniques that


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helped sustain equilibrium inthe system for thousands ofyears. They developed agreat acuity to nature and itsprocesses and

institutionalized this in avariety of pantheistcosmologies. These viewsmay be seen as unacceptablenow, but they helped manand nature harmonize backthen, something our societyneeds more of today.

The next stage ofvalues is set in the time of thepilgrims. The majority of

power was in Europe andFrance and beautiful gardenswere created. The Garden ofVersailles is just one greatexample of landscapearchitecture. Soon enougheach culture started todevelop its own style ofarchitecture and even anInternational Style wasdeveloped. Americas style oflandscaping is frowned uponby others. The ransacking ofthe worlds last greatcornucopia has as its visibleconsequence the largest, mostinhumane and ugliest citiesever made by man.

A Response toValues

The next question toask ourselves in response tovalues would be; what is thelands capacity? Thisquestion is addressed in thePlan of the Valleys in theValleys of Baltimore County,

Maryland. A council wascreated to prepare a plan toensure preservation of thehighest level of amenity withoptimum development. Thiscouncil was made in responseto a problem of a legacy ofopen spaces and farmsthreatened by being over runby a new highway.

The council was

created in 1962 and itsdevelopment of the plan forthe Valleys contains someoriginal contributions toplanning theory and practice.They finally conjured aproposition. The area isbeautiful and vulnerable;


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Development is inevitableand must be accommodated;Uncontrolled growth isinevitably destructive;Development must conform

to regional goals; Observanceof conservation principlescan aver destruction andensure enhancement; Thearea can absorb allprospective growth withoutdespoliation; Planned growthis more desirable thanuncontrolled growth, andmore profitable; Public andprivate powers can be joined

in partnership in a process torealize the plan. In otherwords, the plans left thevalleys mostly natural,adding in buildings inbetween trees and making thecommunity look as natural aspossible, as to live inharmony.

The World is a

Capsule

McHarg introducesthe new ideas in this chapterin relation to an astronauttraining for his trip into

space. His ship would be hiscapsule, his place he will livefor the duration of the trip,just as the world is ourcapsule. The ultimate goal for

this capsule is to produce aself-sustaining ecosystemwhose only import issunlight, whose only exportis heatsufficient to sustaina man for a certain period oftime. By then end of thiscapsule experiment theastronaut had come to self-actualization and united withhimself and the nature around

him. This is what the goal isfor the rest of the world, thisis harmony.

Processes asValues

McHarg brings thenext case study into play inthis chapter. He looks at New


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York City; he tells how it theland seems like it was almostdesigned to house a city.Everything a city needs isthere for the taking. Staten

Island is one of the mostresource rich areas of theland. There is very limitedspace left on the island andthe City of New York ownsit. It is up to them to decidehow dense the Borough ofRichmond should be.

Once again thelandscape architects weighthe differences in social

values and physiographicfeatures. However, this timethe architects must alsoconsider the geology of theisland, given its longgeological history from thePleistocene Ice Age. Thebedrock and surficial geologyas well as the hydrology anddrainage system will place ahuge part on what land isinhabitable and what landshould not be touched. Crosssections of the island areexamined and maps are madeto show vegetation, wildlife,land use, and socialimplications of the land.After laying the maps on topof each other and closeexamination they make acomposite map. It looks atconservation, recreation, andurbanization areas.

The value to thisprocess is that theinformation so compiled andinterpreted constitutes thebase data required to subjectany planning proposal to the

test of least cost-maximumbenefit. There are however,problems in this method. Forexample the insurance ofparity of factors is a big

concern. All the factors in thestudy must be disproportionalto each other. Also, the limitsof the photographicresolution were met in thestudy so some numericalvalues may not have beenrepresented. Due all thesecomplexities, McHarg deemsit the most elaborate study(he has) undertaken.

TheNaturalists

As designers we mustrefrain from the desire tocreate a Utopia. The simplereason is because Utopiasdiffer from person to person,and with everyone the same

there will be no love stories,brave souls, or heroes. Thus,the naturalist is born. TheseNaturalists would be entirelybased on natural sciences,ecology, and the ecologicalview. Also, they haveconcluded that evolution has


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proceeded as much fromcooperation as competition.They are more encompassing,more certain, more romanticand more modest than the

modern day man. AsNaturalists deny themselvesthe luxury of mysticism andassume that all meaning andpurpose can be inferred fromthe operation of thebiophysical world, it is herethat they have searched for anethic.

There are severalrepetitive value-systems used

in this cosmography, forexample the use ofnegentropy, in which plantsare supreme then comedecomposers then all otherlife falls into place. It is alsomade clear that even thelittlest of organisms getrecognized in the system.Finally, one of the mostimportant theories forNaturalists is the idea ofman in nature instead ofman against nature. Theyhave a vivid sense of theother creatures in the earthand try to relate to everythingaround them. However, thereare still two things that keepreturn them to our concern.They are committed to theacquisition of knowledgeand they have a great realmof human understanding.This gives them companywith humanists as well asecological scientists, givingthem the best of both worlds.

The RiverBasin

McHarg preaches thatprofessional landscapearchitects or city planners arelimited in the work that theydo, but professors can start astudy when ever they want aslong as they find iteducational to their students.So McHarg joined theAmerican Institute ofArchitects Task Force to help

contribute information on thePotomac River Basin.This case study does

not have the limitations thatthe architect must abide bylike the past one did. Thereare no issues of survival,highways, or metropolitanareas. The goal of this studyis to further develop theecological planning method.

The firstconsiderations are historicalgeology and climate which,in conjunction, haveinteracted upon the riverbasin, for they have createdthe basic form. Everythingmust be taken into


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consideration for the project,everything that was includedin the past studies in additionto things like precipitation,climate, and water issues

come into planning too. Thegoal: to find the highest andbeset uses of all the land inthe basin, but in every casewe will try to identify themaximum conjunction ofthese.

The studies of thebasin show all types oftopography, vegetations,aquifers, and minerals found

in the river basin. Thearchitects make detailedmaps of these, among otherrelative data, and color codethem to the results theyfound. After they developedthe separate maps, they madeone synthetic map ofalternative suitabilities of theentire river basin region. Itshowed where urban designshould be, agriculture,recreation, mining andcommercial uses should be.After this they made 3-Dmodels of what the riverbasin should look like afterfully developed by eachsystem.

McHarg stresses theneed of creative people in theprofession of landscapearchitects. These personscannot be impeccablescientists for such puritywould immobilize them.Instead he says that theperson should be some one

naturally interested in thesciences and with onlyenough education in thesubjects to get the license forthem, this way the creative

side of the person canflourish and interpose theircreative skills upon the land.

TheMetropolitan

Region

A city occupies anarea of land and operates aform of government; themetropolitan area alsooccupies an area of land butconstitutes the sum of manylevels and forms of

government. McHarg feelslike the term was made justfor the convenience ofcartographers because itsmeaning does not make muchsense.


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When an uncontrolledgrowth model is made, itshows that development,itself, will not observe thenatural process values or

suitability. The town willgrow and grow in all areas,despite if the land is evencapable of supportingstructures.

In Washington D.C. agrowth plan was created in2000. When put next to amap of suitable places fordevelopment it is almost asoblivious as is unplanned

growth. The radial corridorplan deemed certain places asunforested. This is notacceptable; an examination ofagricultural value,foundations, soils and otheraspects would be needed tomake the plan 100% credible.The new method ofexamining all of this at onceis called taking a quadrant ofthe area. It is not a plan it justshows the implications of theland and its processes displayfor prospective developmentand form.

The final concern ofthe investigation is form. Ifgrowth responds to naturalprocesses, it will be clearlyvisible in the pattern anddistribution of developmentand density. However this isnot the final step of the plan,looking at nature only avoidsthe allegations ofignorance. After weunderstand nature then wecan resume looking at otherobjectives.

Process andForm

When process andform is looked at we must bereminded of the Naturalists.The naturalists believe thatall of nature is a process.Now the artist comes intoplay and sees nature not onlyas a process, but as a form; aform that can be molded intosomething beautiful, or canbe beautiful if left untouchedretrospectively. Nature is infact formal, elements haveform with their nuclei andelectron fields, snowflakeshave form with theircrystalline structure, even thedouble helix of our DNA hasform.

The Naturalists havedecided that the earth is fitand can be made morefitted. Fit being anotherword for art, except fitincludes natural objects,creatures, and artifacts, notjust artifacts.

When the form ofAmerica is looked at we haveto look back at its original


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state before any colonizationoccurred. The naturalcommunities of plants andanimals were the bestexpression of environmental

adaption, or evolution. Whenan ecosystem has every plant,animal and organism in placeit has then achieved fitness.According to McHarg, Thisis a conclusion of enormousmagnitudethat there is anatural association which ismost appropriateindeed, inthe absence of man, onewhich would be inevitable for

every place upon the earthand that that community ofcreatures is expressive of itsfitness. This I would call theidentity of the given form.

The question now isnot what is fit, but what isunfit? We see animals innature as fit, but as soon asthat animal is crippled andcan no longer perform theway it is supposed to, it isunfit. Our languageconforms to this notion of theunfit as the unhealthy,crippled, and deformed.Naturalists however, avoid allthis by defining creation asall things inert, all thingsliving and all men. McHargcloses the chapter with afrustrating statement saying,I neither reject nor acceptthis method, but I dorecommend the Naturalistsview as being a suitableexercise for the mind duringthe long waiting periods.

The City:Process and

Form

McHargs nextproject was one inWashington D.C. and theplan was to plant petunias,

zinnias, begonias andJapanese cherries through outthe city. He loved the ideabut saw some problems withit. He also saw theopportunity to try out theecological method on anexisting city instead of justrural spots or spots ofurbanization.

He will now need to

take into account the problemof the form, process andfunctionality of a city. Plus,he has to increase theaesthetics of the city.McHarg says, Memorablecities have distinctivecharacters, and he wants to


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make sure he makes the citymemorable. Beautiful citiesare usually built on beautifulland that has not been torndown or altered distastefully;

instead the landscape is usedto enhance the city that ithomes. A big component thatMcHarg wants to make sureis implemented is that thevalues he creates for theproject go down as policiesso the city can continue doingwhat he did for the city afterhe is gone.

The image of

Washington is a great citymeeting a great river. It has asymbolic center point asthe Washington Monumentand it seems like the entirecity is trying to face it. It is acity of monuments, tree-linedavenues, green open spaces;its buildings are neoclassicaland large in scale, the majorspaces are heroic. When themap was made for the formof the city, the majorelements were clearlyhighlighted as the Capitol,White House andWashington Monument asthe primary focus, followedby governmental buildings,avenues, and then the majoropen spaces. When the twomaps were developed of theevaluations of thephysiographic and ecologicalvalues it was clear what thecity needed to do for thesummary evaluation.

By identifying majorparts of the form, andexamining their importance,

the art commissioners jobbecomes a lot easier. It helpshim figure out where thepieces fit perfectly into thecity, and what parts of the

city dont necessarily needthe art. All so the commonfocus of the job is in the bestinterest of the value of thecity, not as individualprojects. The method forD.C. became the search forthe basis of the identity of thecity.

The City:Health andPathology

In this chapter

McHarg quickly changes thesubject from himself to a mannamed G. Scott Williamson,who according to McHarg,Was a remarkable man.Williamson was obsessedwith the idea of health as aphenomenon. He thought it


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was just as big as aphenomenon as disease. Hehad a hypothesis; physical,mental and social healthswere unified attributes and

there were aspects of thephysical and socialenvironment that were theircorollaries. He wanted to testthis hypothesis so he built thePeckham Health Center inLondon. Shortly after heopened it WWII started andthe hospital was nationalizedafter the war so he diedbefore he ever got to know

the results.McHarg decided tocarry on the study forWilliamson while teaching aclass entitled Ecology in theCity. He told his students thestory and then persuaded anumber of students that itmight be enlightening toidentify the specificenvironments of pathologyphysical, mental and socialfor the city of Philadelphia.His hopes were to at least getthe data collected so thatmore skilled researches couldconclude things from it in thefuture.

The class decided tocollect all available statisticson the categories of health,ethnicity, housing quality, airpollution and density. Theydivided the data into highest,intermediate, and lowestincidence in the city thenthey mapped the data on amap on Philadelphia to see ifthere were any connectionsbetween pathology and the

environment. After mappingout a number of differentdiseases, and environmentalvalues they created a map ofEnvironments of Health and

Pathology and a Synthesismap to help them drawconclusions.

Previous studiessimilar to this one havefocused on the factors ofdensity, overcrowding andsocial competition. Their goalwas to see if there were anyother influential data sets forurban pathology. A man

named Dr. John Calhounhelped tremendously in thefield linking stress to heartand kidney diseases.

McHarg concludesthe chapter, and the book, bysaying, The centralproposition of this book hasbeen that creativity anddestruction are realphenomena, that both haveattributes, that fitness andunfitnessin theevolutionary senseareexpressions of these, as arehealth and disease.

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