Attention ecologists, environmentalists, and the intellectually curious: we now have available the immortal voice of the legendary landscape architect, Ian McHarg. A self-styled "crypto-pseudo-quasi-scientist," McHarg presents in his inimitable Scots accent his unique theory of energy and matter processes inclusive of "human needs and desires" in a finite universe. Listen as he discusses the interdisciplinary theory that astonished good scientists including the director of Brookhaven National laboratory. A gift to future generations, this CD, made from rare tapes lost until now, presents McHarg waxing profound on a thermodynamic definition of creativity as matter and energy raised to higher levels of order; evolution both physical and biological (plants, animals, and microorganisms) in the context of nature; and the criteria and attributes of the creative process (e.g., does a given region move from randomness to dynamic equilibrium, or is it retrogressive and therefore heading toward pathology?). McHarg argues that L. J. Henderson’s concept of "fitness of the environment," although nearly unknown, is as important as Sir Charles Darwin’s idea of "fitness of the organism."
The companion book to his CD, Ian L. McHarg, Dwelling in Nature, will be published by Princeton Architectural Press in Fall 2006 as part of the Conversations with Students series.
