Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Planning Theories Advocated by Eminent Planners
Planning Theories Advocated by Eminent Planners
Eminent Planners
Constantious.A.Doxiadis
Doxiadis
Ekistics, the science of human settlements, the study of the manifold facets of
human life and action in the natural setting of Man's environment in the universe
C. A. Doxiadis enjoyed international acclaim not only for his extensive practice but
also for his planning theories
In 1937 he was appointed Chief Town Planning Officer for the Greater Athens
Area and during the war (1940-1945) held the post of Head of the Department of
Regional and Town Planning in the Ministry of Public Works while also serving as
a corporal in the Greek Army
Eminent Planners
Doxiadis
Doxiadis envisioned ekistics, a name that derives from the ancient Greek
term eikizo meaning "creating a settlement," as an interdisciplinary effort to
"arrive at a proper conception and implementation of the facts, concepts,
and ideas related to human settlement
Eminent Planners
Doxiadis
Eminent Planners
Doxiadis
The greatest problem facing cities worldwide was the problem of managing
growth. He argued, that city planners made inadequate provisions for urban
growth and as a result cities would grow like cancers, the inner core eating
into surrounding neighborhoods and the outer edges gobbling up the natural
landscape
Eminent Planners
Doxiadis
After World War II he created many bold designs for towns and settlements
built throughout Greece
Among his book publications are Ekistic Analysis (1946), Between Dystopia
and Utopia (1966), and Anthropopolis (1975)
Eminent Planners
Doxiadis
Eminent Planners
Doxiadis
The research would cover Ekistic phenomena in the wider, not the narrow,
sense of the term, in order to deal with the development of settlement from
its start, from the selection of the space for mans living, to its completion
and artistic expression through buildings and monuments. We would
attempt to cover the entire phenomenon of our life system which exists
behind these, as represented by geography, history, man and his life, the
multitude of their expressions in space
Eminent Planners
Doxiadis
Doxiadis was optimistic that with proper planning the cities of the world
would eventually mature into a stable and pleasant form he called the
ecumenopolis
Eminent Planners
Planning Strategies
He proposed several solutions for rapidly growing cities, one of which was
for city planners to leave room for expansion of the city core along a
predetermined axis so that most urban expansion would be channeled in a
single direction
This innovation would release the population pressure on the urban core
while leading to a more orderly development of the outlying area
Eminent Planners
Planning Strategies
Doxiadis concluded that planners must find ways to restore human scale to
large cities. Some of his proposals included :
Limiting all buildings to three levels or less, with permission to build higher
bestowed by national authorities
The New Urbanism movement of the 1980s and 1990s, which suggested
that small pedestrian friendly villages should replace typical suburban
developments, echoed many of Doxiadis' suggestions
Eminent Planners
Thank You
Ar.Ajai
Chandran.C.K