The Ecology of the City

Author(s): Ian McHarg

Source: Journal of Architectural Education (1947-1974), Vol. 17, No. 2, The Architect and the
City. The 1962 AIA-ACSA Seminar Papers Presented at the Cranbrook Academy of Art. Part I (
Nov., 1962), pp. 101-103
Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. on behalf of the Association of Collegiate Schools of
Architecture, Inc.
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1423923
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Anotheraspectof our Contemporarycity landscape that resemblesthe Baroque is a fresh emphasis on the spectacular,the representational.
The impactof advertisingis by no meansconfined
to the printedword;it not only lines our highways
with billboards,it lines our streetswith elaborate
commercial or promotional architectureinstitutionalizingcommercialfirmsand humanizingpublic institutions.
Finally, there is a growing revival of mass
pageantry-world's fairs, monster rallies and
sporting events. I question the possibilityof reviving the Baroque street scene in the USA because the public is no longerthe same. For better
or for worse, the averageEuropeanor American
has become largelyindependentof the street.The
notionthat we can lead any significantpart of our
lives in public is an agreeableone but unrealistic.
This is not to say that public gatheringplaces are
not needed, but they must be adaptedto our less
extrovertsociety.
The solutionas I see it is not a seriesof pedestrian malls or more parks or sidewalk cafes or
shoppingcenters or any neo-Baroquerevivalbut
a totally new kind of public gatheringplace. We
are not a homogeneousgroup;we do not derive
pleasurefrom people as such, but ratherwe tend
instinctivelyto formgroupsof compatiblepersons.
I strongly suspect that the new kind of public
gatheringplace will be highlyspecialized,enclosed,
well-defined areas, excluding by some kind of
psychologicalbarrierthe enormousheterogeneous
public.
Thereare two aspectsof our Romantictradition

whichshowfew signsof disappearing.The modem

city remainsdivided into many distinct quarters,
each with its own type of activity.There are many
critics of the urban landscape who deplore this
but it seems to be strongly
compartmentalization,
entrenchedin the modem city scheme.
The other is the feeling for the sanctityof the
individual and the individual environment expressedin the fact that half of the populationof
this countrynow owns its own home.
It remainsfor the futureto reconcilethese two
very differenttendencies:the neo-Baroquedesire
for public amenitiesand socially directeddesign
and the Romantic desire for the isolated experience in the isolatedenvironment.
An analogy to the biological theory of differentiatedand integratedanimalsocietiessuggestsat
least two of the choicesin urbanphilosophywhich
confrontus now. The virtue of the differentiated
society is order and beauty and power; the chief
virtueof the integratedsocietyis simplythatit produces more and betterindividuals.It exists not as
an end in itself but to improvethe conditionsof
life and the possibilitiesof self-fulfillment.
Thereis nothingnew in this conceptof a society
of specializedbeings. This has been the one increasingpurposeof our history: to grow in selfawarenessand to acquirea richeridentity.It is the
role of the contemporarycity to carrythe process
one step further: to show that it is only within
a humane social order that the individual can
achieve self-fulfillment,not in Romanticsolitude,
not in Baroque subjugationto the common will,
but throughan active relatednessto others.

THE ECOLOGY

OF THE CITY
I

by lan Mc Harg
Chairman, Dept. of Landscape Architecture, University of Penn.
101

Cities are probably the most inhumane environmentsever madeby man for man. It is taking
the best efforts of modem medicine and social
legislation to ameliorate the abuses which the
physical environmentimposes upon us.
With all the improvementswhichhave occurred
duringthe last centuryin the social environment,
the physical environmenthas not proportionally
improvedbut has absolutelyretrogressed.We plan
with a surfeitof economicand social determinism
and not enough other criteria. I would not

diminishthem as determinants,but certainlythey

have to be qualifiedby others as well. In looking
for other determinantsof urban form, I have
found the views of the naturalscientist, particularlythe ecologist,most illuminating.
The ecologist is concerned with ecosystems:
functioninginteractingsystems composed of organismsand their environment.The ecologisthas
developedthe conceptionthat we are covered by
a web of life, a biosphere, with all life on the
planet interacting.One can think of the entire

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The AIA-ACSA Seminar Papers at Cranbrook

102

worldas a world-lifebody in which all organisms,

all species,have a role, whichis comparableto the
cell and to the organwithinthe humanbody. The
minute one takes a view of this sort, one is immediatelyproscribedfrom gouging, hacking and
destroyingbecause the conception of the whole
world-lifebody as being interactingsomehowinduces some restraintin self-mutilation.
Such restraintis supportedby the knowledge
that all organic systems are by themselves depletive. Any single organic system would simply
deplete the resources of the world and be extinguished.Man, of course, is a depletiveorganic
system.In orderfor organicsystemsto work,there
must be reciprocity. Somebody's waste is that
whichyou consume,that which you disposeof as
wasteis that whichsomethingelse consumes.This
is called symbiosis.
The ecologist is furtherconcernedwith succession, ie, a developmentand adaptationin time.
The ecologisthas the possibility,as an inheritorof
the Darwinian-Wallacetraditionof evolutionary
biology, to see the relationshipbetween process
andformin a clearerway thananyoneelse. Architects used to say, "Formfollows function."This
was a kindof a manifesto,alwaysillustratedby inorganicsystemslike utensilsand planes and rockets. This was all rightas far as it went, but if one
notesthatthiswas beingproclaimedat a timewhen
Darwin had existed for almost a century, and
scienceslike morphologyand zoology and biology
and botany had been well advanced,it was, in
retrospect,a kind of infantilism.
If one looks at organic systems, I think one
wouldhave to adaptthe statementand say, "Form
expressesprocess' or better still, "Processis expressive." Zoology, morphology, botany and
biology are all based on the presumptionthat the
adaptationof the species, the role of the species
and the location in terms of the environmentcan
be determinedfrom the aspect of the species and
its adaptationto the environment.
One of the most beautifulexamplesis a simple
deciduousforest. The distributionof the plants,
the shape of the plants, the relative size of the
plants, the periodism at which they flower and
fruit is vastly expressive.Indeedone could determine almost all the importantthings about the
distributionand floweringperiods of the plants
by their actualshape.That whichtends to be seen
as a sort of undifferentiatedgreen has specificity
and is an extraordinarilyexpressivestatementof
a highlyorderedsystem.
A compressedexample where process is expressedvery clearlyin form is the formationof a

sand dune. The entire process from beginningto

maturedune covers only about twenty-fiveyears.
When the beach has an inclinationof five to ten
per cent, wave actionwill depositparticlesof sand.
A sand bank, or island, is graduallyformed and
when it reachesa heightof nine or ten feet, marram grass volunteers.The dune is progressively
stabilizedby a successionof vegetation,sometimes
including live oak and pine. The ecologist can
identifyall the elementsof vegetationin terms of
the limitations within which they can exist
(salinity, brackish water, exposure, etc) the
environmentsto which they have adapted, the
associationof these plants and also their succession. Here is somethingwhich seems to me has
absolutely enormous relevance. One can see in
the functionof all of these variables,a formwhich
is totallyexpressive.
Examination of a Region

There is one largerprocess which is less complete than the examinationof the dunes; i e, the
examination of a region. Confronted with the
necessity of land-use planningfor the Delaware
River Basin, our study group selected the cycle
of wateras a device for examination.Besides the
cycle of evaporationand precipitation,one can
specify places where horizontalmovementof the
water occurs. The intrinsicfunctions of the forested uplandsponge,the agriculturepiedmont,the
estuarymarsh,the undergroundaquafer,the aquafer rechargearea,the rivers,the streams,the flood
plains and the riparianland can be identified,
their areas can be demarked.Each is expressive
of its particularrole or process. One could immediately conclude something about the degree
of permissivenessor nonpermissivenessof these
particularfunctions,relativeto otherfunctions.
If you take an area like the Delaware River
Basin and locate all of these areas, suddenlyyou
findthatyou havecoveredsomethingin the nature
of fifty or sixty per cent of the whole region and
you also find that you have producedsomething
like a negative development map. Before you
locate new towns and developmentsanywhereyou
like on the basis of some economic determinism,
let's add this parameterto your planning!Look
and see what intrinsicfunctionsactuallyoccur in
this supposedlyundifferentiatedgreen space and
see the degree to which these intrinsicfunctions
can co-existwith the developmentwhichyou propose.
I have a sense that if the best commonknowledge of biology,ecology and oceanography,which
has permeated landscape architects like myself,

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had been operative on the Jersey shore, there

would have been no catastrophein March 1962
at all. It was only the gross stupidityof breaching
the dunes, destroyingthe vegetationand building
on top of the dunes which produced the catastrophe. In the Delaware River Basin some conception about the demarcationand the intrinsic
functions of open space will tell you the degree
to which it is permissibleto alter the existingbalanced environment.
But coming to the city is another problem. I
am thoroughlyscornfulof that which proposesto
be city planningand spend the best part of my
time indictingthat which is supposed to be the
highest and best good of civilized man and his
fine transformationof naturetowardhis own ends,
but I'm not certainhow to do any better. I have
only little bits and pieces taken from several
scientistswhich I believe are worthy of our consideration.
Pathologistsdoing studieswith rats in extensive
environmentshave producedsome quite astonishing information.They place breedingcouplesin a
superabundantenvironmentwhich produce big,
healthylittersand they'rehappy,and they eat and
they populateand everythingis fine. Then, as the
population begins to reach half its maximum
(there is a maximumdeterminednot by available
food and waterbut by densityand socialpressure)
"pathologicaltogetherness"occurs. A whole lot
of subordinateanimals emerge which just cower
in corners and are bitten by other rats. The size
of litters diminishesreallyquite startlingly.There
is cannibalism,intra-uterineresorption,and the
birthratefalls down dramatically.
Diminution of Population

Hardlyhas this been recordedwhen something

else happens. One finds the adult animals start
being prey to all sorts of diseases. This is what
really gives one pause, because the diseases they
get are absolutelyidenticalin kind and in number
and distributionto those of twentieth-century
urbanman. As a resultthereis such a diminution
of the population as to frequentlylead to extinction.
Now man, in cities, has devices by which he
can amelioratesocial pressure,but, nonetheless,
I think the correspondencebetween the kind of
diseases and the distributionof diseases in these
rats (they're not dying from TB, or pneumonia,
or dysentery;they'redying from cancer,lung disease, kidney disease, heart disease and they are
prey to neurosis) and twentieth century man is
startling. As density increases, stress increases;
from that the susceptibilityto disease increases;
and reproductivecapacityfalls.

The next bit is atmosphericionization.All combustive processes produce positive ionization.In

normal countrysideit tends to be about 70/30
negative/positiveand in the cities almost the opposite, 70/30 positive/negative.Thereis no doubt
at all that this positiveionizationhas physiological
and psychologicaleffects. It inhibitsthe capacity
of the organismto rejectthe carcinogenicelements
which combustionalso producesamongothers.
Sensory Overload

Then there's sensory overload. Lynch and

Luckashoffshowed that there are so many stimuli in the city that most people simplydistainthem
all. Studies at Eastern Psychiatric Hospital in
Philadelphiashow that many people confronted
with sensory overload respond by filtering out
this sensory overloadto a point of sufferinghallucinationsfromsensoryunderload.If our physical
environmentis so anarchic, so disordered,that
people have to filter out in order to survive,this
is an extraordinarycastigationof the form of the
city.
Then there are such things as smog, temperature inversionand the carbon dioxide cloud. We
may all be increasingour toleranceto these, but
honestly,I don'tknowthatthereare so manycompensatingadvantagesto justify it. Why don't we
get rid of carbonmonoxide?
The simple idea of South Sea Islanders,that
you should plant ten trees when every child is
born, makes awfully good sense for people who
dependon oxygen.The knowledgethat a fountain
producesnegativeionizationis a wonderfulbit of
knowledgewhen one realizes we tend to suffer
from too much positive ionization.If stress is a
basis for susceptibilityto disease and the instance
of many diseases,then we must seek the form of
the city which will reduce stress, with the possibility of maximumtranquilityand introspection.
We mustn't subscribe to life-inhibitingprocesses. By acceptingthe form of the city and the
processesof the city that do exist today, we are,
indeed, doing this. I don't think it's the proper
fulfillmentof our own role that the city can only
exist because of the best advances of medicine
and social legislation. We must be certain that
architectureand landscapearchitectureand planning don't subscribeto perpetuatingand increasing that which is life-inhibiting.We must find a
moderncity that is not an eighteenthcenturycity
withgougesand additionsandunacceptablegrafts,
but truly a moderncity.
I suggestthat theremay be some analogy,some
insightand, perhapseven the possibilityof finding
form from process,throughthe perceptionsof the
ecologist.

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103