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RESEARCH MEMORANDUM, 09/3
12th December, 2009
Ekistics Research Unit-Auckland
New Zealand
SUBJECT: Extending the scope and methodology of Ekistic
theory and practice –
Part 2(b):
Contemporaries
AUTHOR: Sharmila
Jagadisan[1]
and TW Fookes[2]
Extending the scope and methodology of Ekistic theory and
practice:
A Research Memorandum
Series
This study on
extending the scope and methodology of Ekistic theory and practice involved
three steps.
Step A:
A two part process which:
1) Reviewed ekistic methodology in the
light of the current state of Planning knowledge and
ideas; and
2) Explored a selection of identifiable
influences (Antecedents and Contemporaries (Peers)) to see
how some major theoretical and
philosophical underpinnings encouraged Doxiadis to
invent this discipline: presented as (a) Antecedents;
(b) Contemporaries (Peers); and (c)Other
influences
Step B:
A review of the work of three WSE members covering the fields of Environment
Behaviour Research, Community
Sociology, and Phenomenology as a contribution to a
dialogue on a Research Agenda for the
WSE.
Step C:
A proposal for a Research Agenda for the WSE as a basis for a dialogue on
extending and
modifying Ekistic theory and
practice.
This Research Memorandum is topic (b) in the second part of
Step A; that is explore a selection of contemporaries (peers)) to see how some of
their theoretical and philosophical underpinnings encouraged developments in
the discipline of Ekistics.
2(b) The influences from the selected
ideas of Contemporaries (Peers) to the thinking of Doxiadis
An example of how a study of
the work of Doxiadis’ contemporaries can assist our understanding of influences
on ekistic theory and practice is provided by Buckminster Fuller. With the assistance of the Doxiadis Archives
in Athens it has been possible to review the interaction between Doxiadis and
Buckminster Fuller.
From this it has been
possible to identify some analogous thoughts and ideas between Doxiadis and
Buckminster Fuller. His correspondence with Doxiadis over several years
demonstrates how Buckminster Fuller, as a contemporary scholar, might have
influenced Doxiadis in his later stages of his ekistics thinking. In addition the information identified from a
literature review of Buckminster Fuller’s writing suggested that he was an
appropriate person to select as an example of a contemporary (or peer)
influence.
Richard
Buckminster Fuller (1895-1983),
popularly known as “Bucky” was one of the high achievers and original thinkers
of the 20th century. Being a famous “talkathon” he influenced people
around the globe through his inventions in a wide variety of fields, including
industrial design, science, arts and architecture. One
of his most famous concepts apart from the geodesic dome was his “Dymaxion Car” which was derived from the
words 'dynamic' and 'maximum
efficiency'. The design was based upon the modern movement concept of finding
effective and practical solutions from the least amount of materials. It is understood that Buckminster Fuller was the first person to
coin the phrase 'Spaceship Earth'. He strongly believed that the vast
advancement in technology and the ingenious capacity of humankind and their
design-led solutions would create a positive future. It is significant to note
that Buckminster Fuller was the President of the World Society for Ekistics
from 1975-1977 and, as noted above, maintained frequent exchange of ideas
through letters to and from Doxiadis3.
A concept pertinent to
Ekistics is Ephemeralization, a term
coined by Buckminster Fuller as he anticipated how to solve the humanity’s
problem by providing more and more life supports with less and less resources (Buckminster
Fuller, 1938, p-279; 1966, p-17). In his thinking he pre-dated Schumacher with
his concept of “Small is Beautiful” (1973). He began to apply this principle in
a series of his revolutionary structures, which is explained in detail in the
following paragraph. Similarly, for Doxiadis minimization of effort is one of
the five spatial principles that guide individuals (anthropos) in relation to
the way they develop space. He believed that anthropos always tried to achieve
maximum benefit which consumes minimum effort, cost and time when living in
human settlements (e.g. when a person encounters a physical obstacle like mountain
he does not cross it by the most difficult route (Doxiadis, 1974, p-15)).
In his lectures he frequently spoke about the relationship
of weight, energy and performance – about doing more with the least – and that
has consistently been the story of technological advancement miniaturizing from
the earliest computers to the modern cellular phones. For example his famous
geodesic dome was designed to cover a maximum space with a minimum of
materials, lightweight and inexpensive. From his words:
Another
demonstration of the trend toward ephemeralization is apparent in the fact that
the sewing machine of this year weighs one half the sewing machine’s weight
yesterday and yet has greater rate, precision and versatility ability
(Buckminster Fuller, 1938, p-272).
Ephemeralization can be applied to the ekistic concept of a desirable urban structure - which is one
where human settlements exist to provide services at the lowest possible cost
and with the minimum possible effort exerted by anthropos. According to Doxiadis
it would be beneficial both for the better health of anthropos and for the
overall economy of all human settlements if facilities offering services needed
daily (central facilities of community IV) which could be reached by walking,
and all others services by any other means of transportation in the shortest
possible time. He believed this would result in a tremendous saving of time and
fuel spent for the overall daily trips of populations.
There is another connection between Buckminster Fuller’s
concept of ephemeralization and Doxiadis’ proposal of five spatial principles.
Buckminster Fuller’s area of interest was focused on materials applied to a
range of his inventions (Dymaxion car, Geodesic dome) which led him to thoughts
of economic construction and the economy of building, whereas Doxiadis’ concern
was on the broad spatial organization of human settlements or we can say on the
formation of space. As noted above one of the principles was the minimization of effort. This is not a
principle that he considered only at the theoretical level. As Doxiadis
believed in supporting his theory with research and practice he used a
research-oriented project (“HUCO project”
which means Human Community) where he proved this statement. His HUCO project showed how the community
levels (e.g Community Class (CC) III, IV, V etc.) are co-ordinated in a
progressive hierarchical continuum within a metropolitan area (such as Athens).
He discovered that the entire form, structure and layout of the HUCO’s (at all
levels from CCIII to CCVIII) obey the law of “minimization of energy” in the
movement of all inhabitants in the Athens Metropolitan Area (Papaioannou, 1987,
p-230).
The expression “human” in the title of the project refers to
the fact that up to the level of “Class IV” (with an average population ranging
from 7000-9000 (Area - 0.9 to 1.2 sq.km.)) the physical dimensions of these
ekistic units are such that an average resident can move on foot from one end
to another in about ten minutes. This means that use of the car or other
vehicles is generally unnecessary for movement within this unit, whereas in the
larger units (Class V, VI and up) some form of mechanized transportation
becomes necessary. The main objective in this project was not only to
understand the nature of the Class IV unit but also to clarify its structure,
its operation, its evolution and also its position in the broader hierarchical
system of Athens Metropolitan Area.
From this account it seems that Buckminster Fuller and
Doxiadis have been dedicated to the economic activity of the world. Both of
them seemed always ahead of their time. Their anticipation of the future was
visionary and imaginative. They both designed and built so their respective
positions were not utopian.
One of the common things we can
see through these great thinkers was their synthesis of knowledge as the
underlying principle, which is “To achieve a comprehensive and overall
perspective of the subject”. With this principle we are reminded of Patrick
Geddes (ERU-Akl 09/2). There appears to
be a continuum of ideas between Geddes, Doxiadis and Buckminster Fuller.
We know that Patrick Geddes always
had a quest to classify knowledge across areas of specialization when he tried
to understand the social evolution of the city. This interest was reflected in
his Outlook tower where one can begin a journey (as explained in the earlier
theme) from the top of the tower viewing the Edinburgh landscape first in its
entirety then separately as a geologist, geographer, botanist, historian,
architect etc, viewing everything in greater detail. One of the greatest needs
what we have today is to encourage everyone to see the “big picture”.
It is important here to remember that
Geddes was a holist. He saw education as a coming together of experiences and
ideas to create an integrated system much greater than its parts. He explained
this as starting with sympathy or understanding of ones fellow man and the
environment, followed by the coalescing (synergy) of disciplines of learning
and finally a building up (synthesis) into a connected whole narrow
specialization. He inscribed the motto “ vivendo discimus “ meaning “By
creating we think and by living we learn”. From Geddes words:
Education
is not merely by and for the sake of action. Just as the man of science must
think and experiment alternately so too must artist, author and scholar
alternate creation or study with participation in the life around them. For it
is only by thinking things out as one lives them, and living things out as one
thinks them, that a man or a society can really be said to think or even live
at all – Patrick Geddes (cited by Boardman, 1944, p-159).
He
also added:
I
have already hammered the point that all higher education is dominated by the
cult of specialism, and I shall keep on hammering until some change is made.
Our whole world presents one vast picture of disjointed and fragmented
knowledge….I contend such a state of affairs is merely the chaos preceding the
coming age of true learning, the age of synthesis of all our scattered knowledge;
the new era that will bring the linking of separate subjects one to the other
and the relating of all to human life- Geddes (ibid, p-149).
Buckminster Fuller however developed his concept of
synthesis in terms of a transcendental
or a priori 4 approach, which he referred to as “synergy” or “synergetics”. The naval
training that he had undergone in his earlier days of his career was the key
responsible for this comprehensive perspective (Sieden, 2000, p-52). In other
words we can say he was an integrator, synthesizer - one who
brought together all the diverse strands of specialized knowledge to progress. He felt that the
tragedy that dominates our Universities is specialized study. Buckminster
Fuller believed that man is a comprehensive co-coordinator who could solve the
universal affairs. He also stated that other than man all other living
creatures are designed for highly specialized tasks. He said:
What nature needed man to be was
adaptive in many if not any direction; wherefore she gave man a mind as well as
a coordinating switchboard brain. Mind apprehends and comprehends the general
principles governing flight and deep sea diving, and man puts on his wings or
his lungs, and then takes them off when not using them. The specialist bird is
greatly impeded by its wings when trying to walk. The fish cannot come out of
the sea and walk upon land, for birds and fish are specialists (Buckminster
Fuller, 1969, p-14)
He also added that:
Our failures are a consequence of many factors, but
possibly one of the most important is the fact that society operates on the
theory that specialization is the key to success, not realizing that
specialization precludes comprehensive thinking (ibid, p-13).
He argues that the purpose of education is to provide students with a system
where they can organize and integrate the information and to make more sense of
the world, for themselves and others.
Doxiadis
emphasized that man has the ability to synthesize all efforts for the creation
of human settlements. He used four vital aspects namely: knowledge, beliefs,
experience and creative will. This was recognized by Posvar (1971) who viewed
Ekistics as an evolving notion concerning humankind in settlements beginning as
“….a point of view which has developed techniques or approaches to the study of
settlements drawing from all fields of knowledge of settlements, and he
concluded that ekistics aspires to become a discipline containing an organized
and coherent body of knowledge, bound together by certain principles and
providing a potential basis for the formulation of theory” (Fookes, 1987,
p-218).
An
example of this thinking is provided by the Anthropocosmos Model (Doxiadis,
1975, p.55). The Anthropocosmos Model is
a systematic framework, which Doxiadis developed, represents various components
like elements, approaches, disciplines etc, and helps us to reach a holistic
(global) view of the problems. Doxiadis
fulfilled the words of the Finnish geographer Johannes Gabriel Grano who said:
Intelligent
is not one who has traveled but one who has been able to see much (cited by
Jauhiainen, 2005, p-196).
All
of the above persons tried to give an individual and overarching framework,
encompassing the disciplines, filling the gaps between them, providing
perspective, displaying the whole that the disciplines illuminate in part. It
was Doxiadis alone who took the anthropocosmos model and the inclusion of
synthesis into his writing (refer to his book Ekistics, An Introduction to the Science of Human Settlements,
chapter 9). The major strength of Ekistics is this established classification
system of human settlements, and its theoretical model of the elements, and
development characteristics, so that all of these can be summarized as a
synthesis or overview.
Though Buckminster Fuller was considered
to be an original thinker one point about which there is little disagreement is
the difficulty of understanding him. "It was great! What did he say?"
is the oft-repeated joke, describing the reaction of a typical enraptured
listener after one of his lectures. The concept of synergetics has become a
sort of Fuller proving ground, into which only a few scientific-minded types
dare to venture (Edmondson, 1987, p-xix). On the other hand Patrick Geddes
concept of synthesis stayed only at the educational level of how to encourage
the students to develop as a generalist rather than specialists while analyzing
the problems. He also used the terms synthesis and synergy in his methodology
of the thinking machine, but he was unable to persuade others to follow what he
hoped. Therefore no one else however could be inspired, because the structure
and development of each “chart” or “graph” was entirely personal to Geddes and
his particular experience and knowledge.
But when we compare the approach of
Doxiadis with respect to synthesis we can clearly say that he was very much
driven by this word synthesis in every aspect of his thinking. He said the
characteristic of Ekistics is “synthesis” where all the hypotheses will be
transformed into a law during the process of action. In his book “Ekistics: An introduction to the science of
human settlements”(1968) therefore, he selected some abstract morphological
cases from ancient settlements and tried to apply a new synthesis corresponding
to new conditions based on the knowledge, beliefs and experience he had gained.
Doxiadis’ philosophy of Ekistics with simple words and clarity in expressing
his ideas is the highlight of his books. He did his best to engage the interest
and emotions of his readers with a level of practical application not always
present in the literature. The concept of the Delos Symposia is also proof of
his holistic thinking where he invited people who were active in various fields
to share their valuable thoughts and ideas with the broadly based approach to
the issues that concerned him.
Conclusion (for Research Memos 09/2 and
09/3)
Consequently from the themes
identified from the study of antecedents and contemporaries to Ekistics it is
possible to conclude that, while influenced to some degree, by them Doxiadis’
work offers a different approach when compared to others who came before him or
during the early part of his life. His ability to build innovatively from the
base of existing knowledge has been misinterpreted by some detractors, as
suggested by an architect’s review about Doxiadis:
These
detractors will point out that many of his ideas are not new – whose are?
Knowledge is a cumulative thing. However many of his ideas are new and his
[Doxiadis] application of many old ideas are new (Deane, 1965, p-139).
The
contribution of Parts 2(a) and (b) was not to analyze whether Doxiadis drew on
the ideas of others. It is to see how he transformed the ideas that others were
suggesting to form part of his ekistic theory and practice. The place of the
ekistic grid and the anthropocosmos model in ekistic theory and practice
supports the conclusion that his contribution was innovative because he drew on
a wide range of ideas and he treated the models as more than an end in
themselves. It can be further observed that what Doxiadis provided in Ekistics
is a new philosophy of Planning education- where knowledge came through a
multi- disciplinary, open ended, direct participation approach with research
central in this process. In this way the student’s enquiry through research
created its own direction for learning. He maintained that this knowledge was,
in some deep way, holistic and interrelated. He tried to combine all his ideas
together for the first time in a very logical fashion so that his theories
could be passed on to others through ekistic education.
References
Boardman,
Philip, (1944), Patrick Geddes, Maker of
the Future, The University of North Carolina Press.
Deane,
Philip, (1965), Constantinos Doxiadis,
Master Builder for Free Man, Oceana Publications.
Doxiadis.C.
A., (1968), Ekistics : An Introduction to
the Science of Human Settlements, Hutchison & Co., (Publishers) Ltd.
Doxiadis. C.
A., (1974), Anthropopolis City for Human
Development, Athens Publishing Center.
Doxiadis,
C.A., (1975), Building Eutopia, Athens
Publishing Center.
Fookes, T. W., (1987), “Ekistics: An
example of Innovation in Human Settlements Planning” Ekistics Journal, Vol.54, No.325/326/327, Athens Center of
Ekistics, pp. 218-227.
Fuller,
Buckminster, (1938), Nine Chains to the
Moon, Southern Illinois Press, Carbondale, Illinois.
Fuller,
Buckminster, (1969), Operating Manual for
Spaceship Earth, Southern Illinois University Press, U.S.A.
Hall,
E. Twitchell, (1966), The Hidden
Dimension, Garden City, New York, Doubleday.
Jauhiainen,
Jussi, (2005), “Edgar Kant and the rise of modern geography”, Geografiska Annaler: Series B, Human
Geography, Vo. 87, No.3 Blackwell Publishing, pp.193-203.
Mairet,
Philip, (1957), Pioneer of Sociology: The
Life and Letters of Patrick Geddes, Lund Humpries, London.
Papaioannou,G.John, (1987), Ekistics
Research: Its relevance for the Present and the Future, Ekistics Journal, Vol.54, No.325/326/327, Athens Center of
Ekistics, pp.228-241.
Sieden, S.
Lloyd, (2000), Buckminster Fuller’s
Universe, Perseus Publishing, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Tyrwhitt, Jacqueline, (1978),
Background to Ekistics and Ecology, Ekistics
Journal, Vol. 45, No. 266, Athens Centre of Ekistics, pp.12-19.
Web
sites
Allen,
John, (1996), http://www.biospheres.com/pubjabucky.html, “Buckminster Fuller's
Synergetic Algorithm and
Challenges of the Twenty-First Century” (accessed on 24th
august, 2007).
[1] Sharmila Jagadisan completed her PhD at
the School of Architecture and Planning in 2009, University of Auckland (UOA),
New Zealand and she is currently working as a GraduateTeaching Assistant (UOA).
[2]
T.W. Fookes (DPhil) is an Associate Professor at the School of
Architecture and Planning, University of Auckland, New Zealand
3 Doxiadis appears to have begun his correspondence with Buckminster Fuller in the year 1963.
4 Meaning of
transcendental- relating to a spiritual realm / presupposed in and necessary to
experiences: a priori / going beyond the limits of human knowledge, experience
or reason (Dictionary meanings).
Buckminster Fuller
developed this transcendental approach to
contemporary relevance with the concept synergy or synergetics. He further
developed a vigorous practical algorithm for utilizing the idea and mathematics
of Synergy, meaning working together, which has as its underlying proposition
that the whole has properties not only greater than but unpredictable from the
sum of the properties of its parts (website: Allen, 1996).