Ekistics

In India two factors override others by their sheer magnitude:
• a building is the outcome of a handmade craft tradition and not industrial production &
• the majority of the population lives in small towns and villages and builds without architects.
The architecture of Asha & Prabhakar Baste is relevant because it addresses itself to both these issues. Their process of construction forges links with the craftsmen; and their buildings are designed to be prototypes. Their style has a simplicity, rigor, and deductive logic that paves the way for a new vernacular.

(This essay argued for Design/Build at a time when it's acceptance was frowned upon by the Indian Institute of Architects)

The second workshop of the Delos Network took place in Athens (Benaki Museum, Pireos St. Annexe, amphitheater) on September 15th, 2018. The workshop addressed the ways in which the Delos environmental ideals were implemented in many high-profile schemes across the developed and developing world in the 1960s-70s, often involving the imposition of ostensibly global solutions on sensitive regional contexts, including lucrative private and government contracts. The aim of the workshop was to analyze the planning tools of these schemes and explore the backlash against this scale of ambition and intervention. How were such projects related to post-political and supranational discourses? The videos of the presentations can be viewed at: http://www.blod.gr/lectures/Pages/viewevent.aspx?EventID=839 .

The Delos Network is a collaborative research project funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council that brings together an international network of scholars, architects and planners to re-interrogate the history, legacy and impact of Constantinos Doxiadis and the Delos Symposia (1963-75). Full details of the project, including its events, organizers and contributors, can be found at: https://delosnetwork.com/

Το καλοκαίρι του 1968 ο συνθέτης Γιάννης Χρήστου λαμβάνει πρόσκληση του Αθηναϊκού Κέντρου Οικιστικής, του Αθηναϊκού Τεχνολογικού Ομίλου του Κωνσταντίνου Α. Δοξιάδη, προκειμένου να συνεισφέρει με μια ομιλία στις εκδηλώσεις του Athens Ekistics Month. Είναι η ίδια περίοδος μιας έντονης και ιδιαίτερα παραγωγικής φάσης του Έλληνα συνθέτη, όσον αφορά τη μουσική δημιουργία αλλά και τη φιλοσοφική πλευρά του που αποτυπώνεται σε μια σειρά κειμένων και σημειώσεων (Η Σεληνιακή Εμπειρία, Πρωτοεκτελέσεις κ.ά.). Παρά το γεγονός ότι η ομιλία δεν έγινε ποτέ, λόγω φόρτου εργασίας που επικαλέστηκε ο Χρήστου, υπάρχει στα πρακτικά της συνεδριακής εκδήλωσης ένα πολύ ενδιαφέρον κείμενο το οποίο έστειλε ο συνθέτης στον Γ.Γ.Παπαϊωάννου προκειμένου να διαβαστεί αντί ανακοίνωσης. Το κείμενο αυτό απηχεί την στοχαστική προβληματική του Χρήστου εκείνη την εποχή, αλλά και συμπληρώνει καίρια τις φιλοσοφικές αγωνίες και αρχές που καταγράφονται στα παραπάνω κείμενα που συνέταξε την ίδια χρονιά.

Τα τελευταία χρόνια τα ζωής του, ο Κ. Α. Δοξιάδης συνέταξε ένα σχέδιο τυποποίησης της Οικιστικής θεωρίας και γνώσης με τη μορφή ενός πλέγματος σχέσεων, το οποίο ονόμασε Μοντέλο του Ανθρωπόκοσμου. Ο σκοπός του μοντέλου αυτού ήταν να αποτελεί το πλαίσιο αναφοράς για κάθε δουλειά: από τις απλές έννοιες σε μια συζήτηση έως τη γενική ταξονομία των οικισμών, από την επιχειρησιακή έρευνα έως την κατασκευή μαθηματικών αλγορίθμων, και από την ανά-λυση δεδομένων έως την κατασκευή γνωσιακών βάσεων σε υπολογιστές. Την πορεία για την οριστική διατύπωση του μοντέλου κατέγραψε στο κείμενο Τα Βάθρα της Οικιστικής, το οποίο παρουσίασε στις 13 Απριλίου 1974, κατά τη διάρκεια του τρίτου ετήσιου κύκλου της σειράς των ανοικτών σεμιναρίων «Μαθηματικά και Οικιστική» του Αθηναϊκού Κέντρου Οικιστικής. Το περιεχόμενο του κειμένου εκείνου συνιστά το αντικείμενο της παρούσης ομιλίας.
Στα χρόνια που πέρασαν από τότε, ο πολυκερματισμός της γνώσης τον οποίο επιχείρησε να δαμάσει ο Δοξιάδης με το μοντέλο του Ανθρωπόκοσμου, μειώθηκε αισθητά χάρη σε ενοποιητικές θεωρίες στο χώρο των επιστημών της Φύσης και του Ανθρώπου. Μαζί λοιπόν με την παρουσίαση του κειμένου εκείνου, επιχειρείται και μια στοιχειώδης επικαιροποίησή του.

The first workshop of the Delos Network took place at the University of Birmingham on March 17, 2018. The Delos Network is a collaborative research project funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council that brings together an international network of scholars, architects and planners to re-interrogate the history, legacy and impact of Constantinos Doxiadis and the Delos Symposia (1963-75). The aim of the first workshop was to investigate the ways which the urban and environmental ideals expressed in the context of the Delos Symposia related to contemporary understandings and interpretations of history, tradition and technology. For more details: https://delosnetwork.com/workshop-1-delos-ideals/ . The videos of four out of eight presentations can be viewed at the Delos Network's YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLVpvTnuGg1IjPSW3XEQwBbeainIVZmuuY

For the past decades Detroit has been synonymous for urban decay, while today its apocalyptic landscape poses a challenge for professionals and investors claiming to provide a vision for its future. This study aims to understand the complex dynamics that led to the abandonment of the city and invalidated the attempts to reverse the decline started in the sixties. Among them, “Doxiadis Plan” stands out for having presented a long-term vision based on a set of integrated programs and following “scientific” guidelines. The study carries out a comprehensive analysis of Detroit’s structural problems highlighting their interactions that formed a downward spiral leading the city to decline. Moreover, It examines the “Doxiadis Plan” in its historical context and draws parallels with contemporary initiatives, in order to explain its failure while reviewing its optimistic vision towards the new promises. Envisioning Detroit’s post-industrial future one should integrate its past.

Der griechische Architekt und Stadtplaner Constantinos Doxiadis (1913–75) war einer der letzten klassischen Modernisten. In der Wiederaufbauphase nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg trat er einerseits als versierter Verwaltungsbeamter in Erscheinung, andererseits gewann er mit seinem Planungsbüro Doxiadis Associates (DA) aufgrund umfangreicher Aufträge für Wohnungsbauprogramme in der dekolonialisierten Welt schnell an Bedeutung. Das erste Großprojekt von DA war das irakische nationale Wohnungsbauprogramm, mit dem das Büro im August 1955 betraut wurde und dem 1958 der Auftrag für den Masterplan von Bagdad folgte.

Diese Projekte festigten Doxiadis’ Ruf als Planungsexperte und ließen sein ursprünglich kleines Büro mit einer Handvoll von Architekten und Ingenieuren zu einer internationalen Planungs- und Beratungsorganisation aufsteigen. Darüber hinaus entwickelte er bei diesen Projekten die organisatorischen Modelle, Methoden und Gebäudetypen, die er später bei vielen seiner Projekte einsetzte, darunter bei der Planung Islamabads, der neuen Hauptstadt von Pakistan. Eines der Entwurfskonzepte, das schon bei der Organisation der irakischen Siedlungen zum Einsatz kam, war die sogenannte Human Community.

In recent years planning discourse and ideology have been dominated by the smart city movement and yet the past is full theories that address the challenges of the increasingly urban world drawing on scientific concepts and technological advances, in most cases unsuccessfully. This paper describes ekistics, a concept coined by architect-planner C.A. Doxiadis to describe the science of human settlements. It offered a comprehensive, interdisciplinary, and systemic approach that explored worldwide urbanization drawing on mathematics, forecasting models, but also on social sciences. In parallel, the paper reviews Doxiadis Associates’ Urban Detroit Area project to denote the clash of systemic methods and large-scale models with urban complexity. The aim is to provide a historical background for assessing the theoretical underpinnings and scope of the smart city model.


https://rdcu.be/b8N3A

While most Australian human settlements are large, densely networked urban systems located on the east-south-eastern seaboard and the coastal footholds of Perth and Adelaide, a particular class of settlements have long maintained occupancy in the interior of the country ...

Despite numerous publications, conferences, and excavations focused on the suburbs (or ‘suburbium’) of ancient Rome over the last several decades, current definitions of this space, its extent, and its functions remain frustratingly varied and even conflicting. This is partly due to the lack of specific demarcations for such spaces in the surviving ancient literature and epigraphy. In fact, the term suburbium only appears twice in known ancient sources (Champlin 1982: 110). However, these assorted and often unsatisfactory modern definitions are also largely the result of a tendency to ignore the numerous and diverse aspects of the suburban realm in order to achieve a simplified, manageable definition. The frequent treatment and study of the Roman ‘suburbium’ as an autonomous entity, disconnected from the Urbs, further compound the situation, as arbitrarily separating this space diminishes its role in a greater interconnected system largely dependent on the city that it surrounds (see Ravetz et al. 2013). Given the current  frustrations, one must wonder, whether we are asking the right questions of this space.

This article introduces a set of concepts and approaches that I argue will have validity for redefining and reassessing the Roman ‘suburbium’. In it, I will take a holistic approach to the Roman suburbs, embracing their complexity to combat their innate ambiguity. While the topic is indeed substantial, discussion of individual sites and detailed historical sequencing will necessarily be omitted since the focus instead will be on providing new models by which to reexamine and redefine this space (given the myriad issues of the archaeology). This is no easy task however, as even today’s metropolitan planners, (economic) geographers, and land-use analysts struggle to accurately demarcate and assess extra-urban areas around contemporary metropoleis (see www.plurel.net). Yet, by approaching the problem from a theoretical standpoint, and analyzing Rome Ekistically - as a dynamically expanding polis (see Doxiadis 1968: 193-199 and below), innovative ways of mapping and measuring may be assessed, offering a clearer understanding of this space, in turn allowing for its evolution, functions, and mobility to be better tracked from Republic to Empire.

While most Australian human settlements are large, densely networked urban systems located on the eastsouth- eastern seaboard and the coastal footholds of Perth and Adelaide, a particular class of settlements have long maintained occupancy in the interior of the country enduring the arid and semi-arid localities that make up the vast majority of the continent's land mass. How this interior class of settlements is perceived plays a significant role in policy formulation processes, including constructing assumptions about their value. This paper brings together two bodies of literature that influence the understanding of the role of remote desert settlements in Australia, namely the 'mutuality of influence' and 'scale-free networks', arguing for the need for policy transformation. The first part introduces the proposition of mutual influence between community, ecology and built system pressures; the second explores how the systemic view of human settlements evolved...

La investigación deja en evidencia el fenómeno de transformación urbana del área urbana de la ciudad de Cúcuta, en particular sobre zonas formales antiguas de estratos medios-altos con casos del estudio que comprenden el polígono cincunscrito por los barrios COLSAG, RIVIERA, SAYAGO, ROSETAL, LIBERTADORES, QUINTA VELEZ, CAOBOS  y como se ha gestado dejando de lado al espacio público, atributo que no ha recibido la atención debida por parte del estado ni la misma comunidad, decreciendo en superficie, teniendo hoy día menos área útil efectiva por habitante, debido al proceso intensivo de cambios de uso y densificación que se materializan cada vez con más fuerza, en razón a decisiones de políticas públicas locales.  En síntesis, el proceso es el resultado de beneficios derivados de cambios de normas urbanísticas y de edificación, que incrementan el aprovechamiento de bienes privados y motivan a agentes del mercado inmobiliario y a la población residente a inducir modificaciones en los usos del suelo, las formas de vida y ocupación, proceso que genera en simultáneo tensiones en la vida comunitaria,  como son los conflictos de convivencia en las que otrora eran zonas residenciales exclusivas de baja densidad, en las que usar, gozar y disfrutar las zonas públicas era parte de la vida cotidiana a nivel barrial y piezas claves para el desarrollo social. 
    La ciudad actual como producto de los intereses del mercado, no toma en cuenta al espacio público, este atributo entró en una etapa letárgica, se mantiene a la sombra de la realidad urbana que va desestimulando el uso de escenarios de recreación y encuentro,  promoviendo la destrucción creativa de bienes, la apropiación indebida de zonas y la pérdida gradual de sentido de pertenencia ciudadana,  situaciones que con el tiempo repercuten en el deterioro progresivo de niveles de interacción entre ciudadanos y lugares que le sirven de engranaje, afectando la calidad de vida y habitabilidad urbana.
    Se desarrolla el marco conceptual que involucra nociones de ciudad, lugar, espacio público, transformación urbana, ekística, dinámicas urbanas y hábitat, permitiendo la construcción de conceptos propios dentro del contexto de la investigación. Así mismo, se valora el territorio, partiendo del desarrollo histórico de la ciudad, seguido de la identificación de inicios y particularidades de los desarrollos urbanísticos objeto de análisis hasta el panorama actual de usos y ocupación, por medio de trabajo de campo y  recolección de información en entidades,  incluyendo disposiciones normativas que han regulado la zona, y las condiciones de atributos urbanos. Se realizan entrevistas que sirven de insumo y consultas de fuentes.
    La investigación propone acciones posibles sobre el territorio, que exigen voluntad política y participación ciudadana para su efectiva implementación. Se inscribe en la línea Hábitat, Ambiente y Territorio, de la Maestría de Gestión Urbana de la Universidad Piloto de Colombia, constituyéndose en un aporte al estudio del problema urbano, desde una mirada crítica que procura contribuir a la mejora de la habitabilidad en la ciudad.

Constantinos A. Doxiadis (1913-1975) was a complicated, prominent, and long-neglected figure in the history of Cold War architecture and urban planning. This work aims to 1) situate Doxiadis in the history of Athens planning, 2) assess how his relationship with American foundations and media impacted his role and legacy in Athens, and 3) make the case for Doxiadis’ legacy to be reconsidered in Athens and abroad. Long before Doxiadis came onto the scene, Athens’ urban form had been defined by the conflict between the neoclassical planning ideas envisioned by Western European backers and the city’s persistent growth of urban sprawl. Influenced by the grandiose ideas of Le Corbusier and Walter Christaller, Doxiadis sought to rein in the forces of Athenian sprawl over the course of his private career from 1952 to 1975. At the same time, Doxiadis hoped to use his success in the United States as a springboard toward achieving dominance as a global urban planner and orthodoxy for his interdisciplinary planning approach of “ekistics.” To meet these ends and attract support from the Ford and Rockefeller Foundations, Doxiadis’ writings and media appearances appealed to the West’s historical appreciation for classical Hellenic civilization and simultaneously utilized exaggerated polemical rhetoric that animated the urban crises of the time. Allured by the philhellenic rhetoric, those same foundations sought to direct Doxiadis to the subject of planning Athens, but Doxiadis’ projects in both Greece and the United States fell victim to a number of forces: his poor relations with Greek politicians, his tendency to expand his projects to unmanageable scales, and persistent skepticism on the part of the Ford and Rockefeller Foundations regarding his planning approach. As a result, many of Doxiadis’ plans and projects failed to be implemented, contributing to his falling out of favor in the history of postwar urban planning. However, this thesis argues that this legacy should be reconsidered. While Doxiadis’ visionary ideas were often outlandish, they were also compelling because they correctly predicted many aspects of Athens’ future growth and motivated the architects he had trained to translate his ideas into practical architecture after his death. Finally, the story of Doxiadis’ life is one integral to histories of the Cold War, postcolonial planning, and Modern Greece. The examination of Doxiadis’ role reveals deep-seated planning trends in Athens’ modern development, as well Greece’s persistent dependence on external powers, two issues relevant to the study of Athens in the 21st century, as its citizens endure the ongoing debt and refugee crises.

While most Australian human settlements are large, densely networked urban systems located on the eastsouth- eastern seaboard and the coastal footholds of Perth and Adelaide, a particular class of settlements have long maintained occupancy in the interior of the country enduring the arid and semi-arid localities that make up the vast majority of the continent's land mass. How this interior class of settlements is perceived plays a significant role in policy formulation processes, including constructing assumptions about their value. This paper brings together two bodies of literature that influence the understanding of the role of remote desert settlements in Australia, namely the 'mutuality of influence' and 'scale-free networks', arguing for the need for policy transformation. The first part introduces the proposition of mutual influence between community, ecology and built system pressures; the second explores how the systemic view of human settlements evolved...

The fascinating career of the Greek architect-planner Constantinos Doxiadis (1913-1975) unfolded against different episodes/periods of the Cold War rivalry. He emerged as a public administrator of the Greek Reconstruction program that was conditioned by the burst of the Greek Civil War (1946-1949), often reckoned as the first proxy war between the two superpowers. His private firm Doxiadis Associates (DA) grew after extensive housing programs commissioned in the developing world during a turbulent period when the U.S. sought to fill the power vacuum left by the dissolution of the Anglo-French colonial establishments and counteract the spread of Nasserism - largely equated with communism. The National Housing Program of Iraq or Lebanon, and the construction of Islamabad, the new capital of Pakistan, were such cases.
Cold War scholarship has gained significant currency in the past years however not always based on a critical view and well-founded research. Analyzing postwar architecture and urbanism as a “soft power” instrument on the Cold War chessboard has turned anecdotal accounts into master narratives. In Doxiadis’ case, his ideological alignment with U.S. interventionism, his affinity with North American planners, the funding of his projects by prominent institutes such as the Ford Foundation, and even his Greek nationality “free of the imperialist stigma” today are considered the driving reasons behind his extraordinary career or are used to explain how DA secured big scale commissions.
While the above hypotheses are neither false nor unsupported, they work better in the big picture, while if not contextualized properly they leave aside important aspects of Doxiadis’ work, theory, and personality. This paper will review some of the above cases with the aim to shed light on the Cold War narratives surrounding his trajectory. On the other hand, it will present an understudied part of Doxiadis’ career, namely the Athens Center of Ekistics (ACE), a research and educational platform that advanced an integrated approach to the problems of human settlements. The ACE was one of the postwar hubs at the European periphery that promoted international cooperation and knowledge transfer through the organization of courses, lectures, and events such as the renowned Delos Symposia. Altogether, the ACE agenda sought to debate global urbanization problems away from the Cold War anxieties and with the participation of representatives from the Soviet-bloc and the developing countries.
Altogether, this paper will argue for a critical view on the use of Cold War narratives and for the need to add nuances to contemporary studies in order to assess the actual impact of the Cold War rivalry on postwar planning and architecture.

This dissertation examines the settlement pattern changes on the Cycladic islands during the Postpalatial period and the Early Iron Age (ca 1200-700 B.C.). An analysis of all the Cycladic sites with archaeological data of the period 1200-700 B.C. is conducted, regardless of their function (settlement, burial ground, sanctuary, workshop, etc.)  and their source (systematic or rescue excavation, survey, casual finds, seizure, etc.). Despite of important lacunae of the archaeological record due to the uneven amount of research undertaken in different parts of the Cyclades, the exploration of a total of 112 sites in 23 islands offers an enlightening picture of the Cycladic settlement patterns in three different scales: settlement, island and island cluster. Thorough examination of the settlement distribution in the Cyclades results in the construction of a model, which we can call settlement pendulum. According to this model, the settlement swings from dispersion to nucleation and backwards. The settlement pendulum takes into account all the available information and offers a realistic description about the settlement pattern changes and ways of life in the Cyclades during the period under consideration. However, the most important contribution of this model is the fact that it may suggest a convincing interpretation of the “settlement hiatus” that the present archaeological record indicates in several of the Cycladic islands during the period 1200-700 B.C. In many Greek regions, both in the mainland and the islands, there is an absence of archaeological evidence from the very end of the Late Bronze Age and the earlier Early Iron Age. This phenomenon is called as “settlement hiatus”, because entire areas seem to be abandoned for long time periods. Several interpretative approaches have been adopted in order to shed light on this “dark” aspect of the period but each of them has serious weaknesses, so the issue of the “settlement hiatus” remains open. Based on the settlement pendulum, this dissertation argues that the “settlement hiatus” of the Cyclades during the period 1200-700 B.C. is owed to the adoption of a way of life that is characterized by dispersed settlement and, thus, low archaeological visibility. Such settlement dispersion explains several phenomena which have been greatly puzzled the scholars, for example the adoption of single burials, the great variability in burial customs, whether there was a phase of the Early Iron Age during which no fortifications were built, etc. Moreover, the settlement pendulum may enlighten similar “settlement hiatus” observed in different times and places, contributing to an expanded understanding of the field of Ekistics based on archaeological evidence.

The Discourse Unit at Manchester Metropolitan University continued to challenge academic psychology's of itself through holding a day conference on 'cyberpsychology': the implications of cyberspace, cyberpunk, and cyberfeminism for psychology and subjectivity. It emerged that the term 'cyberpsychology' had been coined by the discourse unit specifically for this conference, but, what does cyberpsychology mean, why should it pose a challenge and what are the implications for feminist research and practise?....

While most Australian human settlements are large, densely networked urban systems located on the east-south-eastern seaboard and the coastal footholds of Perth and Adelaide, a particular class of settlements have long maintained occupancy in the interior of the country ...

In 1963, the greatest city planner in the world was neither Oscar Niemeyer nor Robert Moses—at least, according to The New Yorker, which gave the title to an “energetic Greek of forty-nine named Constantinos Doxiadis.” Indeed, Doxiadis—the designer of Islamabad, housing coordinator for Iraq, and ambitious consultant planner for Detroit—was one of the premier urban theorists of the period. Though Doxiadis’ charisma made him a darling of the American media—appearing on television opposite Mike Wallace—his fantastic predictions often attracted the ire of his professional contemporaries. And yet, half a century after Doxiadis’ death, some of his forecasts—among them for the ecumenopolis and the rideshare service Über—seem more prescient than ever. Doxiadis’ historic reception in the American media presents a challenging question: can a visionary be taken seriously today, when innovative planning solutions are needed in a world on the cusp of environmental catastrophe?

Aspra Spitia, Constantinos A. Doxiadis' only European example of a complete realisation of his ekistic theory, was originally planned and constructed between 1961 and 1964 for the French aluminium company Pechiney and its Greek subsidiary Aluminium of Greece at Distomitika, in the Southern shore of Mount Parnassos in Voiotia, Greece. As a whole, Aspra Spitia was presented by Doxiadis as a paradigmatic application of Doxiadis' anthropocentric attempt to revive the ancient Greek city in the context of both a radical critique to modern planning and architecture, and the urgent challenges of the future. It is in this very same theoretical framework, as defined by C. A. Doxiadis, that one may today look for a new recodification of the settlement's programmatic and spatial logic in order to enhance its future social, economic and environmental sustainability, in the light of contemporary values and methods while being based on a substantial analysis of the current condition of the settlement and its historical continuous dynamics. This has been the object of a continuing preliminary research project followed by the School of Architecture of the Technical University of Crete, Aluminium of Greece and Ctrl_Space Lab since October 2014.

While most Australian human settlements are large, densely networked urban systems located on the east-south-eastern seaboard and the coastal footholds of Perth and Adelaide, a particular class of settlements have long maintained occupancy in the interior of the country ...

Welcome to this Special Edition of the Journal of Economic and Social Policy (JESP). We have compiled the final papers of leading researchers who participated in an unprecedented and ambitious program between 2006 and 2009 to investigate various aspects that contribute to the sustainability of rural and remote Australian desert settlements. We acknowledge the generous time and effort afforded to the research by remote, mostly Aboriginal communities as well as the insights from partners and agencies to help us ...

Οrganisers of the network: Mantha Zarmakoupi and Simon Richards.

The Delos Network is an AHRC-funded collaborative project that brings together an international network of scholars, architects and planners to re-interrogate the history and legacy of the Delos symposia (1963-75), which were organised by the Greek architect-planner Contantinos Doxiadis in collaboration with the British planner Jacqueline Tyrwhitt.
Urban design solutions were sought in the classical past, for example ancient Greek cities as prototypes for future cities, as well as in new construction, communication and machine technologies. They attracted the foremost intellectuals, scientists and practitioners of the day, laying the foundations for the United Nations ‘Habitat’ agenda.
The Delos Network project will be an opportunity to not only better understand the significance of the symposia but also to address how the Delos debates compare with and feed into contemporary concerns about demographic pressures and environmental sustainability, and their relation to historical precedents by architects, planners and others.
It will also connect researchers and practitioners in history, architecture and planning with key stakeholders from professional architecture, architectural education, built environment policy and grassroots organisations currently exploring the intersections of design, environmental concerns and historical continuity.