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IN EXPECTATION OF RELATIONSHIPS: CENTERING THEORIES AROUND ECOLOGICAL UNDERSTANDING
Citation:
Hill, K., R D. White, M. Maupin, B. Ryder, J. R. Karr, K. Freemark, R. Taylor, AND S. Schauman. IN EXPECTATION OF RELATIONSHIPS: CENTERING THEORIES AROUND ECOLOGICAL UNDERSTANDING. Chapter 12, Johnson, B; Hill, K (ed.), Ecology and Design: Frameworks for Learning. Island Press, Washington, DC, , 271-303, (2002).
Description:
Over the last several decades, many educators and professionals in the design and planning fields have made a "turn to ecology," where "turn" means a shift in emphasis and priorities. From the publication of Design with Nature (McHarg 1969) to the publication of contemporary approaches in Ecological Design and Planning (Thompson and Steiner, 1997) and Landscape Journal's "Eco-Revelatory Design" issue (1998), designers and planners have grappled with bringing ecological knowledge into education and practice. But have these shifts brought a fundamental change in the way we think and represent our knowledge in design and physical planning? Have they reorganized our approach to design and planning theory, or the design process itself? Or are they just part of a broad theoretical pluralism, one that encourages students and practitioners to decide individually whether or not ecological concerns should be raised with regard to a given project? In discussions at the Shire Conference, we concluded that we're currently missing an intellectual model that would allow us to organize issues of function, social equity, aesthetics, and ecological relationships, all under one "umbrella" idea. We'd like to see the design fields move beyond the dichotomies of "nature vs. culture," "art vs. science," and "ecological design" vs. ? "the rest of design"?? Our hope is that a new paradigm could help us do that by starting from a different point of view altogether. Our intention in this chapter is to stimulate our readers to bring a paradigm we're calling "ecological understanding" into design and physical planning. We think that the diverse intellectual models and approaches to professional practice that are introduced in a design or planning curriculum can (and should) be centered around this concept. Ecological understanding, as we see it, is an organizing idea that challenges us to structure and use knowledge from diverse fields, including our own, in a different way.