URBAN PLANNING-

SIR PATRICK GEDDES

GROUP MEMBERS

ABITHA GEORGE THOMAS

DHARSHINI DEVASIGAMANI
 INTRODUCTION
➔ Sir Patrick Geddes (2 October 1854 – 17 April 1932) was a
Scottish biologist, sociologist, geographer, philanthropist and
town planner .

➔ He is known for his innovative thinking in the fields of urban

planning and sociology.

➔ 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,

large towns, and other urban areas that, through population
growth and physical expansion, have merged to form one
continuous urban and industrially developed area.
 INTRODUCTION

➔ He believed in socio-evolution: Societies with "universal Education which would

improve their surroundings; these would upgrade society, which would then improve
the surroundings, and so on.

➔ Patrick Geddes, who was highly influenced by earlier theorists such as Herbert
Spencer and Frederic Le Play, expanded upon earlier theoretical developments
that lead to the concept of regional planning.

➔ He is the father of modern town planning and regional planning.

PLANNING CONCEPTS:
In his book ‘Cities in Evolution’ published in 1915,
he advocated the sequence of planning to be:

i. Regional survey. (Geddes motto was

"diagnosis before treatment")

ii. Rural development.

iii. Town planning and

iv. City design.

These steps were required to be kept constantly

up to date.
 PLANNING PHILOSOPHY:
1. The concept of “Place ,Work and Folk”

2. The Outlook Tower- “The observation

technique”.

3. Diagnostic survey – civic survey.

4. Valley Section Principles.

1.GEDESSIAN TRIADS(PLACE,WORK & FOLK)
➔ Geddes states his understanding of an organism’s
relationship to its environment as follows:
“The environment acts,through function,upon the
organism & conversely the organism acts,through
function,upon the Environment.”(CITIES IN
EVOLUTION,1915)

➔ In Human terms,this can be understood as a place

acting through climatic & geographic processes upon
people and thus shaping them.At the same time
People act,through economic processes such as
farming & construction,on a place & thus shape it.

➔ Thus both place & folk are linked and through work
are in constant transition.
INFLUENCE OF GEDESSIAN TRAID:

➔ Many Indian cities adopted this

idea.For example,Bombay adopted
this notion and in the master plan
most of the OFFICES (i.e. work-place)
were located in the SOUTH ,whereas
the RESIDENCES (i.e. folk-place)were
in NORTH.

➔ As a result of this,traffic patterns were

quite significant.
* Morning:North - South
*Evening :South - North
 2. THE OUTLOOK TOWER-“THE OBSERVATION TECHNIQUE”

➔ In 1892, to allow the general public an

opportunity to observe the relationships among
place, work and folk, Geddes opened a
“sociological laboratory” called the Outlook
Tower- understanding the city in the region
➔ The topmost storey was allotted for visitors to
have a broad outlook of the city.
➔ The storey below was allotted for sciences
starting from geography , astronomy,history etc.
➔ Continued to down floors having city maps,
survey data of Scotland, Great-Britain , Europe.
➔ Finally the Ground Floor ended in exhibiting
The oriental civilization and general study of
man.
➔ The Outlook tower was
a powerful tool in
communicating ideas
about the wider
context in which cities
exist and develop.
➔ In the mid-twentieth
century the Tower
passed into the hands
of the University of
Edinburgh, who
subsequently sold the
building to its current
owners who have
turned it into more of a
theme park than
Outlook to wider ideas.
1
3. THE CIVIC SURVEY

➔ Geddes advocated the civic survey as indispensable to urban planning: his motto was
"diagnosis before treatment".
➔ Such a survey should include, at a minimum, The geology, the geography, the climate, the
economic life, and the social institutions of the city and region.
➔ His early work surveying the city of Edinburgh became a model for later surveys.
➔ He was particularly critical of that form of planning which relied overmuch on design and
effect, neglecting to consider "the surrounding quarter and constructed without reference to
local needs or potentialities".
➔ Geddes encouraged instead exploration and consideration of the "whole set of existing
conditions", studying the "place as it stands, seeking out how it has grown to be what it is, and
recognizing alike its advantages, its difficulties and its defects".
 Local survey &
Understanding of
the Culture and the
context was the
primary step
towards creating
the town plan.

PLAN OF EDINBURGH-SURVEYED BY PATRICK GEDDES

SURVEY OF ‘ GEOGRAPHY & CONTEXT OF EDINBURGH’

Study on the "whole

set of existing
conditions" of
EDINBURGH
 4. VALLEY SECTION PRINCIPLES

➔ Geddes points out how the geographical features , the contour and relief are associated with
primitive occupations of man.

➔ In 1909, Geddes planned the Zoological Gardens in Edinburgh, which led to his development of a
regional planning model called the Valley Section. This model illustrated the complex interaction
among bio-geomorphology, natural occupations such as a hunter, miner, or fisher that are
supported by physical geographies that in turn determine patterns of human settlement .
➔ The point of this model was to understand processes by which relationship between humans and
then environment could be improved through regional planning.

➔ Accordingly the miner, the woodman and hunter on the heights, the shepherd on the grassy
slopes, the poor peasant on the lower slopes, the rich peasant on the plain and finally the
fisherman at sea coast are not only controlled geographically, but are also conditioned by their
environment and occupation which is manifested in their settlements.

➔ “ Geddes says the violation of this principle will not only result in daily economic waste but also
end in aesthetic ruin”.
THANK YOU!!