1Presented By: Yamang Taggu Ist Year M.Tech, IDS Mysore large towns.1 • Sir Patrick Geddes (2 October 1854 – 17 April 1932) was a Scottish biologist. sociologist. A metropolitan area consist of a central city and its suburbs. philanthropist and pioneering town planner . A conurbation can be confused with a metropolitan area. geographer. . and other urban areas that. • He was responsible for introducing the concept of "REGION“ to architecture and planning and is also known to have coined the term "conurbation“ • A conurbation is a region comprising a number of cities. through population growth and physical expansion. have merged to form one continuous urban and industrially developed area. while a conurbation consists of adjacent metropolitan areas that are connected with one another by urbanization. • He is known for his innovative thinking in the fields of urban planning and sociology. these would upgrade society. • Patrick Geddes. • He is the father of modern town planning and regional planning. it was his commitment to close social observation and ability to turn these into practical solutions for city design and improvement that earned him a "revered place amongst the founding fathers of the British town planning movement“ • He believed in socio-evolution: Societies with "universal Education which would improve their surroundings. and so on. . expanded upon earlier theoretical developments that lead to the concept of regional planning. who was highly influenced by earlier theorists such as Herbert Spencer and Frederic Le Play.1 • While he thought of himself primarily as a sociologist. which would then improve the surroundings. • These steps were required to be kept constantly up to date. Rural development. he advocated the sequence of planning to be: i.1 PLANNING CONCEPTS: • In his book „Cities in Evolution‟ published in 1915. ii. iii. Regional survey. Town planning and iv. City design. . Work and Folk” 2. 5. 4. Valley Section Principles. The concept of “Place .“The observation technique”. Conservative Surgery. The Outlook Tower. .1 PLANNING PHILOSOPHY 1. Diagnostic survey – civic survey. 3. ” . purpose of his theory was to understanding relationships among the units of society and to Place find equilibrium among people (environment and the environment to improve conditions. The concept of Place . the • Family.1 1. three units of society including changing the last Le Play's social • Place( Environment) units from "family" to "folk”. • Work (Function) and From Geddes perspective. theorize that society could be explained by the interactions among Geddes adapted these theories. family was viewed as the (function) central “biological unit of human society.Work and Folk : “Geddesian Triad” He was the First to link sociological concepts to town planning French theorist Frederic Le Play. In the context of this Family Work (organism) theory. Place (environment) Work (Function) Folk (organism) Market economics Physical geography anthropology “Single chord of social life of all three combine”. In Geddes on words “Town planning is not mere place planning. market economics and anthropology were related to yield a “single chord of social life of all three combine”. nor even work planning. If it is to be successful it must be folk planning” .His central argument was that physical geography. Conservative Surgery: • Geddes championed a mode of planning that sought to consider "primary human needs" in every intervention.2. making it into a single dwelling. In and around this area Geddes commenced upon a project of "conservative surgery": "weeding out the worst of the houses that surrounded them…widening the narrow closes into courtyards" and thus improving sunlight and airflow. The best of the houses were kept and restored. engaging in "constructive and conservative surgery "rather than the "heroic. • To demonstrate the practicality of his ideas and approach. Geddes believed that this approach was both more economical and more humane. all of a piece schemes" popular in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In 1886 Geddes and his newly married wife purchased a row of slum tenements in James Court. • Thus “The conservative surgery” demonstrates how one can accommodate changes without bulldozing the large sections of an old city for the purpose of development. Edinburgh. . Europe and finally the Ground Floor ended in exhibiting The oriental civilization and general study of man. • The topmost storey was allotted for visitors to have a broad outlook of the city. GreatBritain .1 3. • Continued to down floors having city maps.history etc. • The storey below was allotted for sciences starting from geography . The outlook tower – “The observation technique” : • In 1892. Geddes opened a “sociological laboratory” called the Outlook Tower . to allow the general public an opportunity to observe the relationships among place. . work and folk. astronomy. survey data of Scotland. • In the mid-twentieth century the Tower passed into the hands of the University of Edinburgh. . • The Outlook tower was a powerful tool in communicating ideas about the wider context in which cities exist and develop.1 • The Outlook Tower was built in Edinburgh's Old Town and continues to be used as a museum. • Geddes‟ hope was that visitors would exit the Tower with a new perspective on the Scottish capital and an understanding of how they could play an active role in its future through schemes for social improvement such as his own. who subsequently sold the building to its current owners who have turned it into more of a theme park than Outlook to wider ideas. studying the "place as it stands. the geology. The Diagnostic Survey. Such a survey should include. neglecting to consider "the surrounding quarter and constructed without reference to local needs or potentialities". and recognizing alike its advantages. seeking out how it has grown to be what it is. at a minimum. the geography. the climate. His early work surveying the city of Edinburgh became a model for later surveys. and the social institutions of the city and region.“ Civic Survey”: • Geddes advocated the civic survey as indispensable to urban planning: his motto was "diagnosis before treatment". its difficulties and its defects": . the economic life.1 4. • Geddes encouraged instead exploration and consideration of the "whole set of existing conditions". • He was particularly critical of that form of planning which relied overmuch on design and effect. which led to his development of a regional planning model called the Valley Section. • In 1909. Geddes planned the Zoological Gardens in Edinburgh. the contour and relief are associated with primitive occupations of man. natural occupations such as a hunter. Valley section Principles : • Geddes drew on Le Play's circular theory of geographical locations presenting environmental limitations and opportunities that in turn determine the nature of work. The point of this model was to understand processes by which relationship between humans and then environment could be improved through regional planning. .1 5. or fisher that are supported by physical geographies that in turn determine patterns of human settlement . This model illustrated the complex interaction among bio-geomorphology. • Geddes points out how the geographical features . miner. “ Geddes says the violation of this principle will not only result in daily economic waste but also end in aesthetic ruin”. the rich peasant on the plain and finally the fisherman at sea coast are not only controlled geographically. the shepherd on the grassy slopes. the woodman and hunter on the heights.1 Accordingly the miner. . but are also conditioned by their environment and occupation which is manifested in their settlements. the poor peasant on the lower slopes. His principles for town planning in Bombay demonstrate his views on the relationship between social processes and spatial form. rather than superficial beautification. • Conformity to an orderly development plan carried out in stages. . They included: ("What town planning means under the Bombay Town Planning Act of 1915") • Preservation of human life and energy. a selection of which has been collected together in Jacqueline Tyrwhitt‟s Patrick Geddes in India (1947) He held a position in Sociology and Civics at Bombay University from 1919 to 1925. • Promoting trade and commerce.1 Work in India : Between 1915 and 1919 Geddes wrote a series of "exhaustive town planning reports" on at least eighteen Indian cities. • Purchasing land suitable for building. 1 Work in India : • Preserving historic buildings and buildings of religious significance. not an imitation of European cities. • Promoting the happiness. • Control over future growth with adequate provision for future requirements . • Developing a city worthy of civic pride. rather than focusing on roads and parks available only to the rich. health and comfort of all residents. parks and streets. . Residential buildings were to be low rise. He believed in fostering human interaction by bringing people together naturally in public places. such as squares. aesthetically pleasing and inexpensive.1 The master plan of Tel Aviv (Isreal) : Geddes planned the city in 1925 so that it would answer its residents‟ spiritual and material needs by taking into account factors ranging from climate and social structure to income. airy. he did not believe in separating the commercial centre from the residential areas lest the former become ghost town during nonworking hours. .1 Tel Aviv is now frequently referred to as a “ Living Museum” of Modern Architecture. UNESCO designed Tel Aviv (White city) as a world heritage site in 2003. At present “ Traffic congestion” is the main problem of this city. It is Israel's 2nd largest city (after Jerusalem) and the country‟s business and cultural center. “Geddes‟ great achievement has been the making of a bridge between Biology and Social Science. a whole generation or more before the Western democracies fought a global war". cultural evolution. Geddes' work on regional surveys.1 Influences Geddes' ideas had worldwide circulation: his most famous admirer was the American urban theorist Lewis Mumford who claimed that "Geddes was a global thinker in practice. and urban sociology has become even more noticed since his death His Outlook Tower and view on life serves as a catalyst for today's sustainable city movement.” wrote his biographer Lewis Mumford . Geddes also influenced several British urban planners (notably Raymond Unwin). the Indian social scientist Radhakamal Mukerjee and the Catalan architect Cebrià de Montoliu(1873– 1923) as well as many other 20th century thinkers. like to a flower. Each sees clearly and seizes firmly upon one petal of the six-lobed flower of life and tears it apart from the whole.H. He criticized the tendency of modern scientific thinking to specialization.” . too little awake to those of the others. In his „Report to the H. „an inseparably interwoven structure‟. the Maharaja of Kapurthala‟ in 1917 he wrote: “Each of the various specialists remains too closely concentrated upon his single specialism.1 He saw the city as a series of common interlocking patterns.