A study of the McHarg’s spatial conception in his early phase represented by his drawings of housing plans

This study aims to identify the uniqueness of McHarg's spatial conception in the early phase of his career as a landscape planner, by comparing his drawings for housing studies with his essays about his ideal composition of housing and with drawings of modern architects who are considered to have influences on McHarg's thought. The results show the following three items: (1) the existence of spatial manipulations that are not described in the essays written by McHarg but are represented in his drawings, (2) spatial manipulations indicated as (1) are consistent with a fundamental compositional concept of "integration of man-made and natural materials, emphasizing open space and natural materials", and (3) spatial manipulations of (1) and the fundamental compositional concept of (2) are recognized as the uniqueness of McHarg's spatial conception, which is independent of the influence of modern architecture. It is likely that his unique spatial conception in his early phase led up later to his theory of ecological planning in his representative work of "Design with Nature".