Ekistics
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Ekistics is the
As a scientific mode of study, ekistics currently relies on statistics and description, organized in five ekistic elements or principles: nature, anthropos, society, shells, and networks. It is generally a more scientific field than urban planning, and has considerable overlap with some of the less restrained fields of architectural theory.
In application, conclusions are drawn aimed at achieving harmony between the inhabitants of a settlement and their physical and socio-cultural environments.[4]
Etymology
The term ekistics was coined by
The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary contains a reference to an ecist, oekist or oikist, defining him as: "the founder of an ancient Greek ... colony". The English equivalent of oikistikē is ekistics (a noun). In addition, the adjectives ekistic and ekistical, the adverb ekistically, and the noun ekistician are now also in current use.
Scope
In terms of outdoor recreation, the term ekistic relationship is used to describe one's relationship with the natural world and how they view the resources within it.
The notion of ekistics implies that understanding the interaction between and within human groups—infrastructure, agriculture, shelter, function (job)—in conjunction with their environment directly affects their well-being (individual and collective). The subject begins to elucidate the ways in which collective settlements form and how they inter-relate. By doing so, humans begin to understand how they 'fit' into a species, i.e. Homo sapiens, and how Homo sapiens 'should' be living in order to manifest our potential—at least as far as this species is concerned (as the text stands now). Ekistics in some cases argues that in order for human settlements to expand efficiently and economically we must reorganize the way in which the villages, towns, cities, metropolises are formed.
As Doxiadis put it, "... This field (ekistics) is a science, even if in our times it is usually considered a technology and an art, without the foundations of a science - a mistake for which we pay very heavily."
Units
Doxiadis believed that the conclusion from biological and social experience was clear: to avoid chaos we must organize our system of life from anthropos (individual) to ecumenopolis (global city) in hierarchical levels, represented by human settlements. So he articulated a general hierarchical scale with fifteen levels of ekistic units:[1][5][6]
- anthropos – 1
- room – 2
- house – 5
- housegroup (hamlet) – 40
- small neighborhood (village) – 250
- neighborhood – 1,500
- small polis (town) – 10,000
- polis (city) – 75,000
- small metropolis – 500,000
- metropolis – 4 million
- small megalopolis – 25 million
- megalopolis– 150 million
- small eperopolis– 750 million
- eperopolis – 7.5 billion
- ecumenopolis – 50 billion
The population figures above are for Doxiadis' ideal future ekistic units for the year 2100, at which time he estimated (in 1968) that
Publications
The Ekistics and the New Habitat, printed from 1957 to 2006[7] and began calling for new papers to be published online in 2019.[8]
Ekistics is a 1968 book by
See also
- Arcology
- Conurbation
- Consolidated city-county
- Global city
- Human ecosystem
- Megacity
- Megalopolis (term)
- Metropolitan area
- Permaculture
- Principles of intelligent urbanism
Further reading
- Doxiadis, KonstantinosEkistics 1968
References
- ^ Doxiadis, KonstantinosEkistics 1968
- ^ (PDF) from the original on 2018-11-23. Retrieved 2021-04-08.
- ^ Caves, R. W. (2004). Encyclopedia of the City. Routledge. p. 215.
- ^ Encyclopædia Britannica
- ^ City of the Future
- ^ ACTION for Human Settlements, p. 186, C.A. Doxiadis, Athens Center of Ekistics, 1976
- ^ "Ekistics on JSTOR". Archived from the original on May 12, 2021. Retrieved March 2, 2021.
- ^ "Athens Center of Ekistics on JSTOR". Archived from the original on May 10, 2021. Retrieved March 2, 2021.