PATRICK GEDES (1854-1952)

Patrick Gedes was in Ballater but spent his early childhoodin Perth Scotland. He is also known as
the “Father of Modern Town Planning”. Gedes was the first to link socioloGedes wasthe first to
link sociological concepts into urban planning. He was a biologist by training, a pioneering town
planner who influenced various generations of urban planners, a sociologist and an educator
through his life. Instead of becoming a specialist, he was happy being a ‘generalist’, who held a
holistic view that in order to live we must be able to see the interwined link between the natural
and social sciences. He advocated the CIVIC SURVEY as indispensable to urban planning: his
motto was ‘DIAGNOSIS BEFORE TREATMENT’

PATRICK GEDES CONCEPTS

INTERELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MAN AND NATURE

Patrick Gedes explained an organism’s relationship to its environment as follows : “The
environment acts, through function, upon the organism and conversely the organism acts,
through function, upon the environment”. In human terms this can be understood as a place
acting through climatic and geographic processes, upon people and thus shaping them. At the
same time people act, through economic processes such as farming and construction in a place
thus shaping it.

Geddes and the constellation concept

• This CONSTELLATION THEORY was also coined by Sir Patrick Geddes, “4 or more cities, which
are not economically, politically, socially equal come together in developing a whole region”

• This theory is mostly used for administrative purpose in all countries worldwide.

• Such theory is most prominently used because planning cities in a particular shape pattern is
not possible in Today’ times.

Geddes and the Conurbation Theory

• Gedes introduced the term cornubation in 1915 in his book of Cities.

• Cornurbation is another word of urban agglomeration.

How conurbation occurs

- Waves of population inflow to large cities,

- Followed by overcrowding and slum formation,

- the wave of backflow
- The whole process resulting in amorphous sprawl, waste, and unnecessary
obsolescence.
 A conurbation is a region comprising a number of cities, large towns, and other urban areas
that, through population growth and physical expansion, have merged to form one continuous
urban and industrially developed area.

Geddes and the Valley Section

 Gedes first illustrated his idea of valley section in 1909 to illustrate his idea of ‘region
city’
 The valley section is a complex model, which combines physical conditions, geology and
geomorphology and their biological associations-with so-called natural or basic
occupations such as miner, hunter,and with human settlements that arise from them.