PATRICK GEDDES

TOWN PLANNER

MARIA PAUL I ROLL NO: 8 I COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING TRIVANDRUM

 BIOGRAPHY
• Sir Patrick Geddes (2 October 1854 – 17 April
1932) was a Scottish biologist, sociologist,
geographer, philanthropist and pioneering
town planner.
• He is known for his innovative thinking in the
fields of urban planning and sociology.
• He introduced the concept of "region" to
architecture and planning and coined the
term "conurbation".
• Geddes was the founder of the College des
Ecossaise (Scots College) an international
teaching establishment in Montpellier,
France.
• He studied at the Royal College of Mines in
London under Thomas Henry Huxley
between 1874 and 1878, and lectured in
Zoology at Edinburgh University from 1880 to 2
1888
 CONCEPT
• Patrick Geddes 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.“ (Cities in Evolution, 1915)
• 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, on a place and thus shape it.
Thus both place and folk are linked and through work are in constant transition. 3
 FOLK

THE GEDDESIAN TRIAD

• Patrick Geddes was influenced by social theorists such as
WORK PLACE Herbert Spencer (1820–1903) and French theorist Frederic Le
Play (1806– 1882) and expanded upon earlier theoretical
developments that lead to the concept of regional planning.
• He adopted Spencer's theory that the concept of biological
evolution could be applied to explain the evolution of society,
and drew on Le Play's analysis of the key units of society as
constituting "Lieu, Travail, Famille" ("Place, Work, Family"), but
changing the last from "family" to "folk". In this theory, the
family is viewed as the central "biological unit of human
society "from which all else develops

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 GEDDES & THE VALLEY SECTION

• Geddes first published his idea of the valley section in 1909 to illustrate his idea of the 'region-city'.
• The region is expressed in the city and the city spreads influence of the highest level into the region.
• To put it another way, Geddes said that "it takes a whole region to make the city".
• The valley section illustrated the application of Geddes's trilogy of 'folk/work/place' to analysis of the region.
The valley section is a complex model, which combines physical condition- geology and geomorphology and their
biological associations - with so-called natural or basic occupations such as miner, hunter, shepherd or fisher, and with
the human settlements that arise from them
• Illustrated section using locally available elements of landscape in Edinburg 5
 CONURBATION THEORY
• The term "conurbation" was coined in 1915 by Patrick Geddes in his book -Cities In Evolution
• Internationally, the term "urban agglomeration" is often used to convey a similar meaning to "conurbation".
• He drew attention to the ability of the (then) new technology of electric power and motorized transport to allow cities
to spread and agglomerate together, and gave as examples "Midland ton" in England, the Ruhr in Germany, Ramstad
in the Netherlands, New York-Boston in the United States, the Greater Tokyo Area and Taiheiyō Belt in Japan and NCR of
Delhi in India.
• 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.
• In most cases, a conurbation is a polycentric urban agglomeration, in which transportation has developed to link areas
to create a single urban labor market or travel to work area.
• The term is used in North America, a metropolitan area can be defined by the Census Bureau or it may consist of a
central city and its suburbs, while a conurbation consists of adjacent metropolitan areas that are connected with one
another by urbanization. 6
 CONURBATION THEORY
EXAMPLE OF CONURBATION
1. NEW YORK
• The expansive concept of the New York metropolitan area (the Tri-State Region) centred on New York City, including 30
counties spread between New York State, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania, with an estimated population of
21,961,994 in 2007.
• Approximately one-fifteenth of all U.S. residents live in the Greater New York City area.
• This conurbation is the result of several central cities whose urban areas have merged.
2. INDIA
• Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) is a metropolitan area consisting of the metropolis of Mumbai and its satellite
towns.
• Developing over a period of about 20 years, it consists of seven municipal corporations and fifteen smaller municipal
councils. 7
CONURBATION THEORY
• The region has an area of 4,355 km2 and with a population of
20,998,395, it is among the top ten most populated urban
agglomeration in the world.
• It is linked with Mumbai through the Mumbai Suburban Railway
system and a large network of roads.
• The National Capital Region (NCR) is a name for the conurbation
or metropolitan area which encompasses the entire National
Capital Territory of Delhi as well as urban areas ringing it in
neighbouring states of UP, Haryana and Rajasthan.
• With a total area of about 33,578 km2 (12,965 sq mi) it had an
estimated population of 21,961,994 in 2007.

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 CONSTELLATION THEORY
• As we all saw in the map, prominent cities in Maharashtra are
shown to be connected forming a 'CONSTELLATION' shape.
• 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
MAHARASHTRA – A CASE STUDY countries worldwide.

• Mumbai-Economic and Capital city • Such theory is most prominently used because planning cities in a
particular shape pattern is not possible in Today's times.
•  Nasik-Religious city
• Aurangabad-Administrative city
•  Nagpur-Political city
• Pune-Educational importance city 9
 CONSTELLATION THEORY
• Since, all the five factors necessary for development of a region are divided with five different place , the administration of
that region has a gradual progressing path, because a certain region doesn’t have the
• Maharashtra state has gained prime importance for the country in the last few decade in spite of being formed in early
60’s, contributing 15% to country’s industrial output and 13.3% GDP.
• Production, Manufacturing, automobile, Thermal Electricity projects have been an active part in the growth of the state.
• The distance between the cities in Maharashtra, ranges mostly in 100km-300km making transportation, connectivity,
inter-dependency prosper within the state.
• Maharashtra is divided into six revenue divisions, which are further divided into thirty-five districts.
• These thirty-five districts are further divided into 109sub-divisions of the districts and 357Talukas in Maharashtra.
• The six administrative divisions in Maharashtra state are Amravati Division ,Aurangabad Division, Konkan Division,
Nagpur Division, Nashik Division, and Pune Division.
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THANK YOU