BACKGROUND

The term 'ekistics' was coined by Constantinos Apostolos Doxiadis in 1942. The
word is derived from the Greek adjective οἰκιστικός more particularly from the neuter
plural οἰκιστικά. The ancient Greek adjective οἰκιστικός meant: "concerning the foundation
of a house, a habitation, a city or colony; contributing to the settling." It was derived from
οἰκιστής (oikistēs), an ancient Greek noun meaning "the person who installs settlers in
place".

Doxiadis posited a convenient way of organizing information and mapping out the
components and relationships of the elements within the human settlements realm. He
suggests to have a Classificatory System that will be a methodology to establish the
hierarchical structure and links among elements of a system.

PROBLEMS

Ekistics is the science of human settlements; it is at the beginning of its evolution.

It is trying to provide an answer to the important problems involved in maintaining and
operating human settlements today. Ekistics avoids the term "city," "metropolis," or
"village." The phrase "human settlements" shelters under one roof all species belonging
to this family, the family of the habitat created by man for himself. In the past, human
settlements comprised only villages, then villages and cities, and later metropolises. Now
we speak of megalopolises.

To define our field as the field of all human settlements is to be free to conceive
their proper dimensions and their proper character. Ekistics looks at the problem of
human settlements with no prejudice as to their kind, size or form.

We are now at an important turning point in the evolution of human settlements.

We are passing from problems and forms of the past to problems and forms of the future
at a time when the future seems to have little in common with the past. It is useful
therefore, to try to relate the total problem of human settlements to the problem of their
traffic. It is useful to try to define the relationship between ekistics and the disciplines
related to traffic.
EKISTICS

Ekistics is the science of human settlements; this characteristic refers to functions

expressed in space by area of certain dimensions. In practice, Ekistics has set the goal
of human happiness.

Ekistics aims to encompass all scales of human habitation and seeks to learn from
the archeological and historical record by looking not only at great cities, but, as much as
possible, at the total settlement pattern.

BASIC PARTS OF COMPOSITE HUMAN SETTLEMENTS

 Homogeneous parts - fields
 Central parts - built-up villages
 Circulatory parts - roads & paths within the fields
 Special parts - i.e., a monastery contained within the homogeneous part.

CLASSIFICATION OF HUMAN SETTLEMENT

- By Ekistics Units
- By Ekistics Elemets
- By Ekistics Functions
- By Evolutionary Phases
- Bt Factors and Disciplines

o Based on Sizes
- Small and sparsely spaced (rural settlements or villages specializing in
agriculture
- Large and closely spaces (urban settlements specializing in secondary and
tertiary activities

o Based on Location of Settlements- plains, mountains, coastal, etc.

o Based on Physical Forms-form as the expression of content, function, and

structure

o Based on Five Elements of Human Settlement

o Based on Functions- which are important to an understanding of the meaning and

role of settlements:
o Based on Time Dimension- age of settlements, their place in continuum (past,
present, future), their relative static of dynamic character, the whole process of
their growth.

o Based on degree of society’s conscious involvement in settlements creation

natural and planned settlements

o EKISTICS UNITS

 Four Basic Groups

- Minor shells or elementary units - Man(Anthropos), room, house

- Micro-settlements - units smaller than, or as small as, the traditional town where
people used, do & still do achieve interconnection by walking (housegroup, small
neighbourhood)
- Meso-settlements - between traditional town & conurbation within which one can
commute daily (small polis, polis, small metropolis, small eperopolis, eperopolis)
- Macro-settlements - whose largest possible expression is the Ecumenopolis

 Physical and Social Units

- Man (as individual) - smallest unit

- Space - second unit either personally owned or shared with others
- Family Home - third unit

 Social Unit

- Group of Homes
EKISTIC UNITS: 15 LEVELS

 Also called Ekistics Logarithmic Scale (ELS)

 Unit range from Man to Ecumenopolis which turn into

four basic groups

Doxiadis' ideal future ekistic units for the year

2100 at which time he estimated (in 1968) that earth
would achieve zero population growth at a population
of 50,000,000,000 with human civilization being
powered by fusion energy.
EKISTIC UNITS

Ecumenopolis – The entrire area of Megalopolis – A group of

Earth taken up by human conurbations, consisting of more
settlements. than 10 milion people each.

Conurbations – A group of large Metropolis – Large city and its

cities and their suburbs, consisting of suburbs consisting a multiple cities
3 to 10 million people. Also called and towns having it to 3 million
urban agglomeration. people.
DEVELOPMENT OF HUMAN SETTLEMENT

One of the major problems is the great confusion created by a mixing of two
elements—of man and machine—within the cities of the present. This confusion,
which brings man and machine into conflict in all urban areas, has been resolved
satisfactorily in favor of the machine only for major lines of transportation where
man as a free agent has been completely separated from machine and has been
confined within it.
EKISTICS ELEMENTS

PRINCIPLES OF EKISCTICS

o MAXIMIZATION OF HUMAN POTENTIALS

- In a certain area, man will select the location which permits a maximum of potential
contact.
- It is in accordance with this principle that man abandoned the Garden of Eden and
is today attempting to conquer the cosmos.
- It is because of this principle that man considers himself imprisoned, even if given
the best type of environment, if he is surrounded by a wall without doors.

o MINIMIZATION OF EFFORTS

- Required for the achievement of man's actual and potential contacts.

- Man always gives his structures the shape, or selects the route, that requires the
minimum effort, no matter whether he is dealing with the floor of a room, which he
tends to make horizontal, or with the creation of a highway.

o OPTIMIZATION OF MAN’S PROTECTIVE SPACE

- Means the selection of such a distance from other persons, animals, or objects
that he can keep his contacts with them (first principle) without any kind of sensory
or psychological discomfort.
 o OPTIMIZATION OF MAN’S RELATIONSHIP WITH HIS ENVIORMENT

- consists of nature, society, shells (buildings and houses of all sorts), and networks
(ranging from roads to telecommunications)
- This is the principle that leads to order, physiological and aesthetic, and that
influences architecture and, in many respects, art.

o OPTIMIZATION OF FOUR PREVIOUS PRENCIPLES

- This optimization is dependent on time and space, on actual conditions, and on

man's ability to create a synthesis.
- When he has achieved this by creating a system of floors, walls, roofs, doors, and
windows which allows him to maximize his potential contacts (first principle) while
minimizing the energy expended (second principle) and at the same time makes
possible his separation from others (third principle) and the desirable relationship
with his environment (fourth principle), we speak of "successful human
settlements".

EVOLUTIONARY PHASES

- Macro scale- nomadic, agricultural, urban, urban industrial;

- Micro scale- specific area at a limited period of time

FACTORS & DISCIPLINES

TECHNOLOGICAL INSTITUTE OF THE PHILIPPINES
938 Aurora Boulevard, Cubao Quezon City

Assignment No. 1

EKISTICS

SUBMITTED BY:
NARIO, JEANETTE O.

SUBMITTED TO:
ARCH. RHOEL SAMSON