Ekistics, the Science of Human Settlements

• Published in: Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) Vol. 170; no. 3956; pp. 393 - 404
• Main Author: Doxiadis, Constantinos A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States American Association for the Advancement of Science 23.10.1970
• Subjects: Aesthetics; Agriculture; Automobiles; Basal Metabolism; Cities; City Planning; Concept/Concepts/Conception/Conceptual/ Conceptualization; Contact potentials; Ecology; Energy; Energy consumption; Human settlements; Human/Humans/Humanity; Humans; Morphogenesis; Population Growth; Rooms; Science/Sciences (see also Scientific); Settlement/Settler/Settlers; Tact; Technology; Urban Population; Urbanization
• ISSN: 0036-8075; 1095-9203
• DOI: 10.1126/science.170.3956.393

Ekistics, the study of the org of human settlements, starts with the principles that human settlements are capable of being investigated systematically. It is apparent that in creating his settlements man acts in accord with principles & laws that are extensions of his biological characteristics. In order to achieve the necessary knowledge & develop ekistics, a sci is necessary that will synthesize the manifold disciplines & utilize the huge body of knowledge available to man, a co-disciplinary approach. It is maintained that in founding his settlements man has acted in accord with 5 principles: (a) maximizing his potential contacts with the outside world; (b) minimizing the effort required to achieve these contacts; (c) optimizingthe protective space with which each man surrounds himself to maintain a 'safe' (psychol'al) distance from his surroundings; (d) optimizing the quality of man's relationship with his environment; (e) organizing man's settlements so as to attain an optimum synthesis of the foregoing principles to the maximum extent possible given time, space, actual conditions now existing, & man's ability to synthesize. When human settlements are viewed as systems of energy which man has mobilized, the diff types of cities may be seen as attempts to achieve an optimum org that will utilize this energy in the most econ way possible, & the quality of a settlement is seen as the extent to which it achieves this optimum. Morphogenesis deals with the development of the component parts of an organic system; in ekistics it refers specifically to the way a unit of a human settlement has developed under the influence of anthrop'al & natural forces. The ratio of the effects of these forces & the probable synthesis of them by any given ekistic unit may be expressed in logorithmic scales, & they are a basic tool for the study of morphogenesis in a spatial context. The poor conditions in our cities are traced to a limited, faulty or antiquated understanding of morphogenesis. One indication of this is seen in the preconceptions governing attempts to find an optimum size city. M. Maxfield.