ARCH 413 - PLANNING 3:

INTRODUCTION TO URBAN & REGIONAL PLANNING

Session 2
Ekistics – The role of humans in settlements and how it affects ecology

Ar. MARIA RALLAH E. VILLASECA

USTP
OUTLINE OF TOPICS:

PART 1
• Discussions - Enumerate three ways in which humans
affect the world through resource consumption. Explain
its boon (advantage) and bane (disadvantage). Each of the
three items must be explained in no more than three
sentences.
• The Anthropocene (Humans as catalysts of urbanization
& development)

PART 2
• Ekistics
REFERENCES FOR THIS SESSION

Ekistics: The Science of Human Settlements by Konstantinos

Doxiadis

Alessa and Chapin. “Anthropogenic biomes: A key contribution to

earth-system science”
BY THE END OF THIS SESSION, YOU SHOULD:

“Learn about Humans in their ecological setting and their role in

urban and regional planning”

Why are humans so

Important to Urban and
Regional Planning ?
 REVIEW:
• Scales of urban areas: what are the larger territories?
• Physical Environments as product of the spatiotemporal
(natural and built world + human activity and connections)
• Places of activity for humans

DOBBINS on livability

Chapter 3 - Dobbins, Michael “Urban Design and People” John Wiley and Sons. © 2009
KEY WORD:

planning
CITIES ARE ECOLOGICAL SYSTEMS!
 DOXIADIS on basics of settlements
According to Doxiadis, human settlement in itself is a system
composed of the following elements:

1) nature,
2) man,
3) society,
4) shells (that is, buildings),
5) and networks.

Ekistics: The Science of Human Settlements by Konstantinos Doxiadis

 Doxiadis:

“Human settlements have always been

created by Man’s moving in space and
his defining his territorial interests and
therefore his settlements, for which he
later created a physical and institutional
structure.”

Ekistics: The Science of Human Settlements by Konstantinos Doxiadis

 Man built flat floors so he may rest and upright
walls and flat roofs because he found them
structurally acceptable to his senses.

The Conclusion: The Manner in which man

builds his settlements is always in harmony
with his needs and his senses

morphogenesis of human settlements

Ekistics: The Science of Human Settlements by Konstantinos Doxiadis

 To present his theories on human settlement
evolution scientifically and systematically,
Doxiadis mapped the energy patterns of
humans across different eras.

Energy is measured by the amount of calorie

consumption in total considering the entire
population. Areas where man burns more
calories are shaded/darkened.

Ekistics: The Science of Human Settlements by Konstantinos Doxiadis

 Agricultural with
Hunter-Gatherer / trading capitals
Agricultural
muscular

Ekistics: The Science of Human Settlements by Konstantinos Doxiadis

 Industrial
Pre Industrial automobile
Automobile
automobile Mass production

Ekistics: The Science of Human Settlements by Konstantinos Doxiadis

 EKISTICS
“We see man spreading his energy thin in
the nomadic phase of his history (Fig. 3), then
concentrating in one area and using both energy and
rational patterns when he organizes his village, where he Science of
spends more energy in the built-up part than in the fields
(Fig. 4). Later, we see him concentrating in the small city human
and using a wider built-up area, where he expends even
more energy, and then, when more people are added, we settlements
see him spreading beyond into the fields (Fig. 5). Finally,
when he has commercial forms of energy available and
can dispose much more energy without properly
understanding its impact on his life and therefore without
controlling its relationship to his settlement, man becomes
completely confused by his desire for more energy. He
suffers because, through ignorance, he inserts this
additional energy into the system that he creates in a way
that causes problems such as air and thermal pollution
(Fig. 6).”
Constantinos A. Doxiadis, “Ekistics, the
Science of Human Settlements”, Science, v.
170, no. 3956, October 1970, p.393-404

Ekistics: The Science of Human Settlements by Konstantinos Doxiadis

 The following models by
Doxiadis reflect the evolution of
settlements with focus on the
influence of the automobile.

“(Left) Man gets settled down in villages”

“(Right) Man tends to expand to the periphery of
established villages.”

Ekistics: The Science of Human Settlements by Konstantinos Doxiadis

 “(Left) With cars, Man tends to reach the other village more easily”
“(Right) Man tends to settle in between settlements.”
Ekistics: The Science of Human Settlements by Konstantinos Doxiadis
 “(Left) The establishment of a new settlement”
“(Right) Linkage towards the third settlement”
Ekistics: The Science of Human Settlements by Konstantinos Doxiadis
 “In each specific case, the process starts with the circle
whose radius is defined by man's willingness to walk daily
up to a certain distance and to spend a certain period of
time in doing so (the limit for the rural dweller is 1 hour,
or 5 kilometers, for horizontal movement; the limit for the
urban dweller is 20 minutes, or 1 kilometer). This leads to
the conception of a circular city, and of a city growing in
concentric circles (Fig. 7). When the machine - for
example, the motor vehicle - enters the picture we are
gradually led toward a two-speed system (Fig. 8), and
then toward interconnected settlements (Fig. 9); then the
road toward larger systems the universal city of
ecumenopolis is inevitable (Ref. 5).”
Constantinos A. Doxiadis, “Ekistics, the
Science of Human Settlements”, Science, v.
170, no. 3956, October 1970, p.393-404

Ekistics: The Science of Human Settlements by Konstantinos Doxiadis

 human
settlements are
organisms
“[a settlement] is an extension of man's biological
characteristics, and in this respect we are dealing with a
biology of larger systems.”

- Doxiadis

Ekistics: The Science of Human Settlements by Konstantinos Doxiadis

 Although the size of organisms can be
classified by its age, we do not have enough
knowledge about the human settlement as an
organism to be able to predict its growth
patterns.
human needs are
constantly changing
Doxiadis emphasizes the different sizes of cities but does not define the
specific dimensions of these units and their levels.
5 units
Doxiadis simplifies the size
of human settlements into
Size of settlements as a
“unit” of settlement
units just as biologists and as “scientification”
assign age throughout the
life span of the organism
 5

4
2
1

2 [ROOM] 3 [FAMILY HOME] the unit that 4 [GROUP OF 5 [CITY] THE POLIS
the space which belongs to the most immediate HOMES/SOCIAL UNIT] The largest and most complex unit
belongs to him members of his territory The fourth unit is a group of
alone, or is homes
shared under
certain
circumstances
with a few others

1 [MAN] himself as an individual. - unit

includes the individual, his clothing,
and certain furniture, like his chair.
ESSAY QUIZ 1 (GROUP WITH 3 Members each)

In reference to Alessa and Chapin. “Anthropogenic biomes: A key contribution to earth-

system science” and Konstantinos Doxiadis’ Ekistics, answer the following questions:

1. - What is Ekistics?
2. - What is morphogenesis? Connect this with Alessa and Chapin's study.
3. - How does ekistics help us study human civilizations?