Patrick Geddes

-Introduction , works , contribution to planning

Done by ,
Samiksha ,Sneha ,Puvizhi,Oviya,Naailah
Who Was Patrick Geddes?
Patrick Geddes was a Scottish biologist, biologist, sociologist,
geographer, philanthropist and pioneering town planner .

known also for his innovative thinking in the fields of urban planning
and education.

He was responsible for introducing the concept of "region" to
architecture and planning and is also known to have coined the term
conurbation.

He was also known as father of master town planning

First link to sociological concepts into town planning

Geddes believed planners should have a strong grounding in, and
work with, the unique attributes of the places they were planning for,
which came to be expressed in his motto, Survey Before Plan.
Who Was Patrick Geddes?
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. A conurbation can be confused with a
metropolitan area. A metropolitan area consist of a central city and
its suburbs, while a conurbation consists of adjacent metropolitan
areas that are connected with one another by urbanization.

While he thought of himself primarily as a sociologist, 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; these would upgrade
society, which would then improve the surroundings, and so on.

Who Was Patrick Geddes?
While he thought of himself primarily as a sociologist, 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

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.
Geddes Timeline
His 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, a whole generation or
more before the Western democracies fought a global war".

Geddes also influenced several British urban planners, the Indian
social scientist Radhakama Mukerjee and the Catalan architect
Cebria de montoliu (18731923) as well as many other 20th
century thinkers.

Geddes' work on regional surveys, cultural evolution, 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.
His Influences

Geddes great achievement has been the making of a bridge
between Biology and Social Science, wrote his biographer Lewis
Mumford

He saw the city as a series of common interlocking patterns, an
inseparably interwoven structure, like to a flower. He criticized the
tendency of modern scientific thinking to specialization. In his Report to
the H.H. the Maharaja of Kapurthala in 1917 he wrote:

Each of the various specialists remains too closely concentrated
upon his single specialism, too little awake to those of the others.
Each sees clearly and seizes firmly upon one petal of the six-lobed
flower of life and tears it apart from the whole.

The master plan of Tel Aviv (Israel) :
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.
He believed in fostering human
interaction by bringing people
together naturally in public places,
such as squares, parks and streets;
he did not believe in separating the
commercial centre from the
residential areas else the former
become ghost town during non-
working hours.
Residential buildings were to be low
rise, airy, aesthetically pleasing and
inexpensive.
The master plan of Tel Aviv (Israel) :

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.
It is Israel's 2
nd
largest city (after Jerusalem) and the countrys
business and cultural center.
At present Traffic congestion is the main problem of this city.
Works in India
Between 1915 and 1919 Geddes wrote a series of "exhaustive town
planning reports" on at least eighteen Indian cities, a selection of
which has been collected together in Jacqueline Tyrwhitts Patrick
Geddes in India (1947)

He held a position in Sociology and Civics at Bombay University
from 1919 to 1925.

His principles for town planning in Bombay demonstrate his views on
the relationship between social processes and spatial form. They
included: ("What town planning means under the Bombay Town
Planning Act of 1915")
Preservation of human life and energy, rather than superficial
beautification.
Conformity to an orderly development plan carried out in stages.
Purchasing land suitable for building.
Promoting trade and commerce.

Works in India
Preserving historic buildings and buildings of religious significance.
Developing a city worthy of civic pride, not an imitation of European
cities.
Promoting the happiness, health and comfort of all residents, rather
than focusing on roads and parks available only to the rich.
Control over future growth with adequate provision for future
requirements

Patrick Geddes-understanding of cities
-Patrick Geddes understanding of cities is very deep than many of his
contemporaries.
-He was very anxious to draw a plan for solving the problems.
-His firm belief is that the city as a living organism always evolves.
-Its growth and decay are natural.
Patrick Geddes Planning concepts

-Rural development, Urban Planning and City Design are not the same
and adopting a common planning process is disastrous.
-Conurbation -waves of population inflow to large cities followed by
overcrowding and slum formation, and then the wave of backflow the
whole process resulting in amorphous sprawl, waste, and unnecessary
obsolescence.
-The sequence of planning is to be:
-Regional survey
-Rural development
-Town planning
-City design
-These are to be kept constantly up to-date
-He gave his expert advice for the
improvement of about 18 major towns in
India.
Patrick Geddes Regional survey



-In this survey he tried to develop new ways of observing and analyzing
cities.
-It involved collection of all known data of a city and its region such as its
origin, geography , climate, traditions and present socio economic
structure.
-It formed a storehouse of information and helped in preparing a long term
practical strategy for social development.
-He was the first one to create the idea of region in city planning.
VALLEY SECTION


Patrick Geddes Valley Section
In his valley section he clearly showed the relationship between of folk , place
and work.
folk space Work
-He believed that an urban planner should be a generalist than specialist
knowing fairly well about all disciplines.
-In his Valley section he showed that all the natures ocupations have a
place.
-Starting from the head of the valley section the hunter and miner , the
woodman , the shepherd , the poor and rich peasant and the fisherman have
works which are closely related to their surroundings.
-The geographical space shapes the folk and the work, and the people with
their work shape the environment. Thus there is a continuous struggle
between environment and society.

Patrick Geddes Valley Section
Miner

Woodmen

Hunter

Shepherds

Poor peasants

Rich peasants

Fishermen
At the head of the valley section , first activity can be
hunting , until woodman and miner comes in .Next to
forestland comes the pasturages and its shepherds. Next
on the higher and poor soils comes the struggling peasant
followed by rich peasant on the deeper rich land down the
valley. In the end we have the fishermen near sea.
-This is the evolution of human civilization in the valley
section.
-Understanding regions past history and present conditions
help for better socio- economic and cultural organization.
source: Team 10 Primer, MIT Press second
edition 1974 (first edition 1968)
THE DOORN MANIFESTO
Patrick Geddes
-There are always problems in the cities which need immediate attention such as
growing slums , increasing traffic , urban renewal etc.
- To deal with these he developed a technique called Conservative surgery.
-Congestion is always high at
intersections.

-He wanted to create smooth
traffic flows by pulling down
carefully selected houses which
are old.

- Public participation is another
important concept that he
stressed.
On the left, you can see the colonial government's plan for wiping out most of this
residential neighborhood in order to improve its housing and reform its street plan into
a 'modern' grid (overlaid on map). Geddes showed how the government's objectives
could be achieved with far less time and money by careful attention to detaila close
look at the actual situation on the street.
The little illustration above
shows one of his proposals