Grid: Ekistics için Bir İnşa ve Temsil Aracı

Abstract

This study focused on Ekistics, the proposed science of human settlements by Constantinos A. Doxiadis in the 1960s, with reference to the current discussions in the field of knowledge, particularly the exponential growth in the amount of data. The conditions which led Doxiadis to found a new science of human settlements were discussed in a comparative manner to the current challenges scientists face today in the age of Big Data. Ekistics used the logic of the grid as an essential element in both construction and representation of the new science of human settlements. In the article, this new science was primarily considered as an effort to data-basing all human settlements that ever existed regardless of their scales, and it is argued that the logic of Ekistics fits better as a tool for analysis and documentation since it is very analytically constructed as a grid. Even though the grid logic corresponds to physical systems in the city, like roads or other infrastructural elements, abstract relationships between disciplines, or the flow of information, in Doxiadis’ formulation, the grid remains a two-dimensional construct that presupposes linear advancement from analysis to production.