Bringing Together Science, Philosophy, and Design!
I believe that the world of design is often disconnected from other vocations. This is a serious handicap for designers who hope to create interesting places for people. Understanding the culture of people, the ecology of a region, and the history of a city allows a designer to transcend their own biases and think more like their intended end user. Designing with nature ensures that structures and spaces will serve people for generations to come in a sustainable manner. I believe this sort of designer / planner is just beginning to emerge, which I've termed an Ecological Planner. Below is a graphic that was generated for my Master's thesis that summarizes some of my top influences as a designer, thinker, and scientist.
This scatter plot is an XY scatter with a Z and Z prime function. X is the level of physicality involved in the work of an individual, hence the far left is largely theoretical work and the far right is largely design or built landscapes. Y juxtaposes Ecocentric ideals with Anthropocentric ideals. As an individual moves from the bottom to the top they become more focused on ecology and the environment than humanity exclusively (even if their focus may be on landscapes). The Z function of this diagram is scalar. As the bubble around a point increases in size (and moves from white to black) the importance of this person's contribution to my work increases. For example, Homi Bhabha is a post-colonialism thinker focuses on space duality and contested cultural spaces where as Ian McHarg is one of the earliest American contributors to urban development and design that incorporates nature as a primary stakeholder. This is not to say that Bhabha's work is not important as much as it suggests that McHarg contributes much more to my ideology. Z prime demarcates four zones of study. Green is environmentalism with minimal involvement with planning or design. These thinkers were generally more concerned with raising awareness of issues like sustainability, pollution, and ecological degradation. Blue is urban planning as it pertains to theoretical structure and criticism, though Kevin Lynch embodies a form of physicality in his work. Red and Yellow are both representative of landscape architecture. Red is more of classic landscape architecture as seen in the 1800s and early 1900s. This is a philosophy that sees nature as something to be sculpted by man for the benefit of man. Yellow looks beyond man and toward the needs of future generations, the environment, ecosystems, and so forth.
These philosophies and ideals culminate at the center to create ecological planning. An ecological planner seeks to combine the science and ideals of ecology and environmentalism with humanity of planning and landscape architecture. Their ultimate goal is equity within their designs and this is driven by strong design skills with powerful understanding of theory and analytics.