The term Ekistics (coined by Konstantinos Apostolos Doxiadis in 1942) applies to the science of human

settlements.
[1][2]
It includes regional, city, community planning and dwelling design. It involves the study of
all kinds of human settlements, with a view to geography and ecology the physical environment and
human psychology and anthropology, and cultural, political, and occasionally aesthetics. As a scientific
mode of study is currently found to rely on statistics and description, organized in five ekistic elements:
nature, anthropos, society, shells, and networks. It is generally a more academic field than "urban
planning", and has considerable overlap with some of the less restrained fields of architectural theory.
In application, conclusions are drawn aimed at achieving harmony between the inhabitants of a
settlement and their physical and socio-cultural environments.
[3]


The scope of ekistics
In terms of outdoor recreation, the term ekistic relationship is used to describe one's relationship with the
natural world and how they view the resources with in it.
The notion of ekistics implies that understanding the interaction between and within human groups
infrastructure, agriculture, shelter, function (job) -- in conjunction with their environment directly affects
their well-being (individual and collective). The subject begins to elucidate the ways in which collective
settlements form and how they inter-relate. By doing so, humans begin to understand how they 'fit' into a
species, i.e. homo sapiens, and how homo sapiens 'should' be living in order to manifest our potentialat
least as far as this species is concerned (as the text stands now). Ekistics in some cases argues that in
order for human settlements to expand efficiently and economically we must reorganize the way in which
the villages, towns, cities, metropoli are formed.
As Doxiadis put it Ekistics is a science, even if in our times it is usually considered a technology and an
art, without the foundations of a science. This is a mistake for which we pay very heavily. Having
recorded very successfully the destructions of the ekistic wealth in Greece during WWII, Doxiadis became
convinced that human settlements are susceptible of systematic investigation. Doxiadis being aware of
the unifying power of systems thinking and particularly of the biological and evolutionary reference
models as used by many famous biologists-philosophers of his generation, especially Sir Julian
Huxley (18871975), Theodosius Dobzhansky (190075), Dennis Gabor (190079), Ren Dubos (1901
82), George G. Simpson (190284), and Conrad Waddington (190575), used the biological model to
describe the "Ekistic behavior" of Anthropos (the five principles) and the evolutionary model to explain the
morphogenesis of human settlements (the eleven forces, the hierarchical structure of human settlements,
dynapolis, ecumenopolis). Finally, he formulated a general theory which considers human settlements as
living organisms capable of evolution, an evolution that might be guided by Man using "Ekistic
knowledge".

Etymology
Ekistics is derived from the Greek adjective more particularly from the neuter
plural (as physics is derived from , Aristotle). The ancient Greek
adjective meant: "concerning the foundation of a house, a habitation, a city or colony;
contributing to the settling." It was derived from , an ancient Greek noun meaning "the person
who installs settlers in place". This may be regarded as deriving indirectly from another ancient Greek
noun, , meaning "building", "housing", "habitation", and especially "establishment of a colony, a
settlement , or a town" (already in Plato), or "filling with new settlers", settling", "being settled". All these
words grew from the verb , to settle and were ultimately derived from the noun , "house",
"home" or "habitat.
The shorter Oxford English Dictionary contains a reference to an oecist, oekist or oikist, defining him as:
"the founder of an ancient Greek ... colony". The English equivalent of oikistikh is ekistics (a noun). In
addition, the adjectives ekistic and ekistical, the adverb ekistically, and the noun ekistician are now
also in current use. The French equivalent is kistique, the German oekistik, the Italian echistica (all
feminine).

Ekistic Units
See also: Human settlement hierarchy
Doxiadis believed that the conclusion from biological and social experience was clear: to avoid chaos we
must organize our system of life from Anthropos (individual) to Ecumenopolis (global city) in hierarchical
levels, represented by human settlements. So he articulated a general hierarchical scale with fifteen
levels of Ekistic Units
[1][4]
:
Names of Units and Population Scale (final version, from C.A.Doxiadis' last book, ACTION for Human
Settlements, p. 186, Athens Center of Ekistics, 1976): Note: The population figures below are for
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.
[1][5]

Anthropos 1
room 2
house 5
housegroup (hamlet) 40
small neighborhood (village) 250
neighborhood 1,500
small polis (town) 10,000
polis (city) 75,000
small metropolis 500,000
metropolis 4 million
small megalopolis 25 million
megalopolis 150 million
small eperopolis 750 million
eperopolis 7,500 million
Ecumenopolis 50,000 million
In comparison the United Nations population estimate, for the year 2100, at a constant growth rate,
Uganda would form a small eperopolis, with a population of about 1 billion people, in an area of about
250,000 km (4600 people/km, comparable to greater Tokyo today).

Details of the study of human settlement
One of the primary tenets of Ekistics is the development of human settlements based on hexagonal
infrastructures. Rectilinear urban planning is shown to fail miserably in the ability to efficiently handle the
various zones (residential, commercial, and industrial) in ways that support people that are collectively
and demonstrably well and fit (integrated and balanced spirit, mind, and body). That the horrendus traffic
in such places as Washington, DC and Los Angeles exist as a result of this type of 'methodology', or more
aptly phrased a lack of foresight and control in urban design, is testament to the inability of rectilinear
planning to adequately provide the means to effectively handle the growth of metropolitan settlements.
Noded and hierarchical hexagons (think of a structured bi-directional tree, or map, in computer science, a
more geometric neural network, or the refinement (not the Baroque adornment) of the Academie des
beaux-arts d'architecture evolved into a hexagonal infrastructure), or weighted hexagons and connected
based on their proximity (think of a circulatory system), relative importance to the central function of the
settlement, e.g. a commercial center or an industrial sector, or 'neural center' (if you will), and flow of
human bodies or material resources, not only provides for free-flowing circulation, but enables the
expansion and promotion of hexagonal sectors to higher weights of arrangement as the settlements
increases in population and/or importance. It is important to remember though that the ekistical planning
and development of human settlements based on such a scientific approach need not be considered a
conversion into a collective machine. Rather, Ekistics provides the means by which individual settlements
based on their ethnic background and geographic location to incorporate their heritage while arranging it
in a manner that supports their collective intent. Literally, much of the wasted time and resources can be
significantly reduced so that the duty of the individual can be smoothly performed in order to allow ample
time for the creative quality-of-life (story-telling, the arts - martial, applied, and fine -, cultivation of one's
relationship with nature, relaxation time, and conversation, etc.), to emerge by means of the interpersonal
relationships within and between settlement(s). Essentially, the structure of Ekistics enables humans to
synergize their cultural heritage with technological evolution.




Ekistics is the term coined by Constantinos Apostolos Doxiadis as the science of human settlements. We
use the principles of ekistics in our approach to projects where the ever-changing social, economic, political,
legal, ecological, technical and cultural aspects of our environment affect our settlements.

In order to create the cities of the
future, we need to systematically develop a science
of human settlements. This science, termed Ekistics,
will take into consideration the principles man takes
into account when building his settlements, as well
as the evolution of human settlements through
history in terms of size and quality. The target is to
build the city of optimum size, that is, a city which
respects human dimensions.
Our subject, the whole range of human settlements, is a very
complex system of five elements - nature, man, society,
shells (that is, buildings), and networks. It is a system of
natural, social, and man-made elements which can be
seen in many ways - economic, social, political,
technological, and cultural.


If Public Health approaches the crisis
ecologically, five elements must be taken
into account: nature, in all its resources
and its ecological processes, as these affect man, who is himself the most
ubiquitous aspect of our environment;
shells, meaning houses, buildings and
structures of every kind; society in all
its social, cultural, economic, political,
and legal aspects; networks of communication, transport, and land use which
relate man and space.
The formulation of these five elements
and the comprehensive analytical system which relates them to man and his
communities comprise the work of an
architect and planner, C. A. Doxiadis.
He calls it "Ekistics," the science of
human settlements. It is a coined word
from good Greek roots; it is ecology applied to "the well-being of man" as an
urbanizing animal.
The Principles
In shaping his settlements, man has always acted in
obedience to five principles.

The first principle is maximization of man's potential
contacts with the elements of nature (such as water and
trees), with other people, and with the works of man (such
as buildings and roads). This, after all, amounts to an
operational definition of personal human freedom. 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.
In this, man differs from animals; we do not know of any
species of animals that try to increase their potential
contacts with the environment once they have reached the
optimum number of contacts. Man alone always seeks to
increase his contacts.

The second principle is minimization of the effort required
for the achievement of man's actual and potential
contacts. He 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.

The third principle is optimization of man's protective
space, which 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. This has to be true at
every moment and in every locality, whether it is
temporary or permanent and whether man is alone or part
of a group and by the clothes man designs for himself, and
it may be explained not only as a psychological but also as
a physiological problem if we think of the layers of air that
surround us or the energy that we represent
The walls of houses or fortification walls around
cities are other expressions of this third principle.

The fourth principle is optimization of the quality of man's
relationship with his environment, which 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.
Finally, and this is the fifth principle, man organizes his
settlements in an attempt to achieve an optimum
synthesis of the other four principles, and 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".
What we mean is settlements that have achieved a
balance between man and his man-made environment, by
complying with all five principles.
EKISTIC
PRINCIPLES
DESIRABILITY OUTCOME

Maximization of
potential contacts
Each individuals need for access to other people, work, goods, and
services, is met in ways that score positively in terms of
accessibility, technology and cultural appropriateness.
Minimization of
effort in terms of
energy, time and
cost
People can satisfy their without having to expend unnecessary time and
energy.
Optimization of
Anthropos
protective space
when alone
People live in a human scale neighborhood which is safe and
secure, where culturally sensitive provisions meet these needs.
Optimization of the
quality of
Anthropos
relationship with
the system of life
People have levels of access to opportunities, and economic and social
benefit which are fair and culturally sensitive.
Optimization in the
synthesis of all
principles
The humane habitat exhibits a sensitive balance in the desirability
outcomes where quality of life and social justice reinforce the desirability to
achieve a sustainable environment.