87
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
P. B. Roös, Regenerative-Adaptive Design for Sustainable Development, Sustainable Development
Goals Series, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-53234-5_7
Chapter 7
Design and Planning with Nature
Abstract Planning and design has had a considerable impact upon the structure and evolution of
settlements and urban cities worldwide and in Australia. Most cities and settlements have been planned
by way of survey, plan and subdivision. Over time the planning of cities evolved, and in the 20th and
twenty-first century planning practice evolved to cope with the urgent need to enable the rapid expansion of cities due to unprecedented population growth. The result was that planning movements
focused on urban renewal and tried to grasp issues brought about by increasing populations due to city
migration and internal growth. The result was that the consideration of environmental and ecological
stewardship and the need to look after our natural environment have been lost. In this chapter, the
concept of ‘planning’ is regarded as one of the components in a collective approach to the practice of
design and planning of the built environment and its interconnectedness with nature, amongst the
disciplines of architecture, urban design and landscape architecture. The chapter explores the existing
knowledge systems of design and planning of our human settlements through the lens of contemporary environmental design practice, and progress to chart the seminal ecological planning and design
theory of Ian McHarg, identifying the consideration of ‘the whole’ in his work. The chapter concludes
with how Design with Nature (1992 [1969]) can be used today in a contemporary practice to align
with the regenerative- adaptive pattern language, and how to apply the fundamental pattern –
Nature’s Design [7] – to the design and planning of our current and future human settlements.
Keywords Design with nature · Plan with nature · Ecological planning and design · Nature’s design ·
Ecology · Regenerative · Planning and design · Deep roots · Sustainable
Upward links:
… so far, we have established that we need to consider The Whole [1] when we design and plan our human
settlements and that our interconnections with nature can be enhanced due to our Love For Nature [6].
However, this innate attraction to nature can also be misused in a destructive manner, where humans see it as a
resource to fuel the needs of settlements. This tendency of a human-centric worldview must be avoided at all
costs, and an Integral Sustainable Worldview [2] needs to be adopted which embraces the practice of
Nature’s Design [7].
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
P. B. Roös, Regenerative-Adaptive Design for Sustainable Development, Sustainable Development
Goals Series, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-53234-5_7
Chapter 7
Design and Planning with Nature
Abstract Planning and design has had a considerable impact upon the structure and evolution of
settlements and urban cities worldwide and in Australia. Most cities and settlements have been planned
by way of survey, plan and subdivision. Over time the planning of cities evolved, and in the 20th and
twenty-first century planning practice evolved to cope with the urgent need to enable the rapid expansion of cities due to unprecedented population growth. The result was that planning movements
focused on urban renewal and tried to grasp issues brought about by increasing populations due to city
migration and internal growth. The result was that the consideration of environmental and ecological
stewardship and the need to look after our natural environment have been lost. In this chapter, the
concept of ‘planning’ is regarded as one of the components in a collective approach to the practice of
design and planning of the built environment and its interconnectedness with nature, amongst the
disciplines of architecture, urban design and landscape architecture. The chapter explores the existing
knowledge systems of design and planning of our human settlements through the lens of contemporary environmental design practice, and progress to chart the seminal ecological planning and design
theory of Ian McHarg, identifying the consideration of ‘the whole’ in his work. The chapter concludes
with how Design with Nature (1992 [1969]) can be used today in a contemporary practice to align
with the regenerative- adaptive pattern language, and how to apply the fundamental pattern –
Nature’s Design [7] – to the design and planning of our current and future human settlements.
Keywords Design with nature · Plan with nature · Ecological planning and design · Nature’s design ·
Ecology · Regenerative · Planning and design · Deep roots · Sustainable
Upward links:
… so far, we have established that we need to consider The Whole [1] when we design and plan our human
settlements and that our interconnections with nature can be enhanced due to our Love For Nature [6].
However, this innate attraction to nature can also be misused in a destructive manner, where humans see it as a
resource to fuel the needs of settlements. This tendency of a human-centric worldview must be avoided at all
costs, and an Integral Sustainable Worldview [2] needs to be adopted which embraces the practice of
Nature’s Design [7].