Product Description

With a distinct emphasis on human cooperation and biological partnership in design, the author explores the relationship between the built environment and nature to illustrate how both can be used to their full potential without being detrimental or destructive to each other. Provides a combination of scientific insight and constructive design, and shows how to employ what nature offers to the fullest extent without imposing limitations or design constraints to create a balanced and self-renewing environment.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #102210 in Books
• Published on: 1995-02-06
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 208 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780471114604
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From Library Journal
LJ's reviewer boldly contended that this "may well be one of the most important books of the century." Blending philosophy and science, McHarg shows how humans can copy nature's examples to design and build better structures. This 25th anniversary edition includes a new introduction and epilog. This remains "a pleasure to read" (LJ 10/1/69).
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From the Back Cover
"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

". . . important to America and all the rest of the world in our struggle 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 of landscape planning and to that unfortunately small collection of writings which speak with emotional eloquence of the importance of ecological principles in regional planning." —Landscape and Urban Planning

In the twenty-five years since it first took the academic world by storm, Design With Nature has done much to redefine the fields of landscape architecture, urban and regional planning, and ecological design. It has also left a permanent mark on the ongoing discussion of mankind's place in nature and nature's place in mankind within the physical sciences and humanities. Described by one enthusiastic reviewer as a "user's manual for our world," Design With Nature offers a practical blueprint for a new, healthier relationship between the built environment and nature. In so doing, it provides nothing less than the scientific, technical, and philosophical foundations for a mature civilization that will, as Lewis Mumford ecstatically put it in his Introduction to the 1969 edition, "replace the polluted, bulldozed, machine-dominated, dehumanized, explosion-threatened world that is even now disintegrating and disappearing before our eyes."

About the Author
IAN L. McHARG was the founder of and is professor emeritus in the Department of Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning at the University of Pennsylvania. Known as the father of ecological planning, his landmark design projects include The Woodlands, Texas, and Amelia Island, Florida. Professor McHarg has received numerous honorary degrees and awards, including The National Medal of Art, presented by President Bush in 1990."

Customer Reviews

Design with nature, not against it
I can't believe I am the first to review this book. It was one of the most important books in my library when it first came out over 25 years ago and I still refer to it once a year or so.

Ian McHarg pioneered both a "logical" way to approach human enterprise within the natural world, and the analytic/presentation methodology which is now used by virtually all planners. At least the technicals aspects of the methodology are used; the real struggle to understand the principals behind prioritizing land use is still ongoing.

If you're looking for some clear and easy to understand directions to help get us out of the mess we've made of our world, "Design With Nature" is a good place to start.

Ian McHarg's _Design With Nature_
Recently re-issued in a 25th-anniversary edition, this book has obviously retained its position. Why? Because it is *the* place to begin an environmental impact statement. It should be on the bookshelf, and engraved in the heart and mind, of anyone connected with, or concerned about, planning for the future.

McHarg takes the simple idea of overlay maps--which may contain any type of information--and builds up a procedure for making the difficult trade-offs involved in resolving competing ideas about land use.

No local community should be without a set of McHarg overlays. Any citizen group concerned about the actions of a 'developer' should be able to prepare its own overlay for the town's McHarg base map, showing its assessement of areas that need protection and areas that are suitable for the proposed use. This may not make everyone happy, but it at least guarantees that the issues and specific sites are understood by all, and that specific concerns have been fairly addressed.

Buy this book for your town planner.

Essential foundation for ecological planning/design
This was an important piece in the development of ecological perspective for urban/environmental design and planning proffessions. It is a classic and should be familiar to anyone concerned with environmental issues as they relate to development.