ABSTRACT
This essay examines the interaction of architecture and landscape in the work of Ian McHarg, and it frames this discussion through his exploration of housing. The chapter begins at Harvard University with McHarg’s collaborative thesis on the revitalization of downtown Providence, Rhode Island. The discussion of this project, which he developed in conjunction with architecture students, illustrates how McHarg conceived of the landscape as both a functional science and imaginative construct that worked with and responded to built form. A series of case studies that include a New Town proposal, a barrier island housing scheme, a suburban development project, and a natural resource survey for a regional watershed indicate how the interaction of architecture and landscape remained central to his design agenda as his explorations increased in scale and complexity and moved from housing to the city and region. As will be seen, the agency of the landscape intensifies in conformance with his ambitions. The chapter ends with a discussion of the reciprocity of architecture and landscape presented in the introduction of his environmental manifesto Design with Nature.
