Core thesis
Design is not a formal or aesthetic act. It is a decision about where and how humans intervene in living systems. McHarg’s method: map ecological processes layer by layer (geology, hydrology, soils, vegetation, wildlife, climate), overlay them, and let the composite reveal where development is appropriate, where it is risky, and where it is destructive. Nature is the primary designer. The architect’s job is editorial, not authorial.
What it unlocks in practice
Every site we work on begins with a suitability analysis derived from McHarg. On Gili Meno this was literal: coral sand geology, freshwater lens depth, mangrove root zones, tidal inundation, and prevailing wind mapped as constraints before a single building footprint was placed. The masterplan’s conservation zones are not ideological. They are overlay outputs. At Jugil, slope stability and downstream hydrology determined the TPST footprint and drainage design before programme was even confirmed. The method forces us to treat site selection and building placement as ecological decisions with measurable consequences, not client preferences dressed up in sustainability language.
Watch out for
McHarg’s overlay method assumes relatively stable ecological baselines. On a 1.5km coral island with rising sea levels and shifting sand profiles, “suitability” is a moving target. The binary logic of build/don’t-build also underestimates what light-touch, adaptive structures (elevated, demountable, bio-based) can achieve in marginal zones. And the book’s silence on power, capital, and land tenure means you still need a political theory to get anything built. Overlay analysis tells you where. It does not tell you how to negotiate with the landowner, the regulator, or the investor who wants the beachfront.
Project relevance
Gili Meno masterplan: ecological overlay as the foundational planning instrument, directly determining conservation zones, building envelopes, and infrastructure corridors. Jugil TPST: hydrological and geotechnical constraint mapping for facility siting. BiRD Lab: integrating building into existing vegetation, slope, and water flow rather than clearing and grading.
Cross-references
Meadows (Thinking in Systems) on why ecological processes are feedback structures, not static backdrops. Wahl (Designing Regenerative Cultures) on moving beyond “do less harm” to active participation in living systems. Tsing (Arts of Living on a Damaged Planet) on why no landscape is pristine baseline, complicating McHarg’s implied equilibrium.