Abstract

While the historiography of modern architecture has become a well-tilled academic field in recent years, the green margins have been relatively neglected. As in all aspects of architecture, the historical study needs to be cross-disciplinary and contextual, but the work so far has mainly focused on general theoretical issues and arguments (for and against deep ecology, for example), or on currently fashionable figures, such as Heidegger, who were almost unknown to British architects until rediscovered by later generations and translated. This talk will list and describe some of the social and scientific thinkers whose influence can be traced in the thinking and discourse of earlier twentieth century architects, landscape practitioners and planners, including better-known figures such as Patrick Geddes and Lewis Mumford, and less familiar thinkers about the processes of nature, including scientists such as Lancelot Law White, C. H. Waddington and Gregory Bateson, tracking some of their intersections with the world of design.