References/Referenzen Paper Proposal
Dr Amber Roberts,
Andre Le Notre Fellow
Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Paysage
Towards a Modern Landscape: The Role of Referencing in Ian McHarg’s Early Research
2019 marks the fiftieth anniversary of landscape architect Ian McHarg’s seminal text ‘Design With
Nature’. The book raised McHarg’s reputation to an international standing and widely disseminated
the ecological approach that continues to be taught and practised by landscape architects across the
globe. Prior to McHarg’s breakthrough method of landscape assessment and design less is known
about how he developed his ideas and theories into cohesive approaches to landscape. In this paper I
wish to discuss McHarg’s first major research project ‘Towards a Modern Landscape’ which
immediately predated the publication of Design With Nature. The project spanned McHarg’s transition
period between Scotland and America between 1955-1965 and was funded by the Rockefeller
Institute. The project included the identification, filing and synthesis of articles based on the theme of
Modernist Landscape Architecture from a wide range of books and articles published in international
journals and in multiple languages. At the height of the project McHarg employed three full time
research assistants to collate and classify the materials, resulting in a vast repository of information.
The project was firstly propelled by McHarg’s frustration with the lack of information and dedicated
reference sources on Modernist landscape architecture and secondly by his will to expand his
repertoire and depth of understanding as a lecturer. I wish to present McHarg’s method of working in
‘Towards a Modern Landscape’ as a significant precursor to his later works. The referencing
methodology McHarg developed for the project and the major role references continued to play in his
subsequent work became fundamental to his processes of idea formation and development as an
educator, author and practitioner. The project sheds light on a lesser known aspect of McHarg’s work
through his early interest in Modernism yet also helps us begin to trace the origins of his later shift
towards ecological concerns.
The paper presents the findings of a post-doctoral research project on McHarg’s early works, the
project was funded by The Paul Mellon Centre and archival research was undertaken at the
Architectural Archives of the University of Pennsylvania in 2018/9.