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Patrick Geddes
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Sir Patrick Geddes (1854 - 1932) was a Scottish biologist and botanist, known also as an innovative thinker 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 .
as born in Ballater, Aberdeenshire, Scotland on October 2, 1854. 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 1888.
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Sir Patrick Geddes (1854 - 1932) was a Scottish biologist and botanist, known also as an innovative thinker 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 .
Biography
He was born in Ballater, Aberdeenshire, Scotland on October 2, 1854. 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 1888. He held the Chair of Botany at University College Dundee from 1888 to 1919, and the Chair of Sociology at the University of Bombay from 1919 to 1924. He died in Montpellier, France on April 17, 1932. He was knighted in 1932 shortly before his death.
Geddes shared the belief with John Ruskin that social processes and spatial form are related. Therefore, by changing the spatial form it was possible to change the social structure as well. This was particularly important in the late 19th and early 20th century when industrialization was dramatically altering the conditions of life.
Geddes demonstrated this theory through his work in Edinburgh's "Old Town". Here, in this most dilapidated area, he used associations with prominent thinkers who lived there in the 18th and 19th century (like Adam Smith), to establish residential halls. The building in question is still part of the University of Edinburgh complex. Here he situated his famous Outlook Tower, a museum of local, regional, Scottish, and world history.
He collaborated with his son-in-law, prominent architect, Sir Frank Mears on projects in the Middle East where in 1919 Geddes provided consultation on urban development of Jerusalem and authored 1925's master plan for Tel Aviv. Tel Aviv is the only known city whose core is entirely built according to Geddes' plan.
He was the founder of the College Des Ecossais, an international teaching establishment located in Montpellier, France.
In India, Geddes provided planning consultacy to the rulers of Princely states. He came up with principles for town planning in Bombay which included: ("What town planning means under the Bombay Town Planning Act of 1915")
- CARE and PRESERVATION of human life and energy, particularly child life. NOT merely superficial beautification.
- CONFORMITY to a DEFINITE PLAN of orderly development, into which each improvement will fit as it is wanted. NOT the immediate execution of the whole plan.
- THE BRINGING INTO THE MARKET OF LAND Suitable for building, which without a Town Planning Scheme would in all probability never be anything but agricultural land. NOT the levying of heavy improvement charges without commensurate benefits.
- PROVISION OF GOOD BUILDING SITES were no possibility of building with any success now exists. NOT the having of awkward and narrow-shaped plots
- ENCOURAGEMENT of TRADE and increased facilities for business. NOT the interruption of trade.
- PRESERVATION of HISTORIC BUILDINGS and buildings of religious veneration with all their traditions. NOT the destruction of old land-marks and temples.
- The DEVELOPMENT of an INDIAN CITY worthy of civic pride. NOT an imitation of European cities, but the utilisation of what is best in them.
- HAPPINESS, COMFORT and HEALTH for all residents, NOT merely expensive roads and parks available only for the rich.
- MUTUAL INTERCHANGE of the cities’ activities. NOT wholesale alterations at great expense, with no assured financial returns.
- CONTROL over the FUTURE GROWTH of your town with adequate provision for future requirements. NOT HAPHAZARD laying out of buildings and roads with resultant COSTLY improvement schemes. ECONOMY. Not extravagant fads.
Geddes also got to work in Madras thank to Lord Pentland who knew him from his work in Edinburgh. Pentland invited Geddes to bring an exhibition on town planning to Madras in 1914. This was around the time of the meeting of the Indian National Congress and Pentland hoped that the exhibition would show the Congress members the benefits of British rule. Geddes exhibition which was the product of 35 years of his work was sent by a ship which was sunk near Madras by the German ship Emden along with "Christmas consignments to the Madras shops, motor-cars
for a member of council and lesser individuals, the season’s supply of wine for
Government House, all… scattered on the stream". However some new material was collected and they were exhibited at the Senate hall of the Madras University in 1915. Geddes lectured and worked with Indian surveyors and travelled to Bombay and Bengal where Pentland's political friends Lords Willingdon and Carmichael were governors. He held a position in Sociology and Civics at Bombay University from 1919 to 1925.
Geddes was keenly interested in the science of ecology, an advocate of nature conservation and strongly opposed to
pollution. Because of this, some historians have claimed he was a forerunner of modern Green politics.
Geddes' ideas had a worldwide circulation: his most famous admirer was the American urban theorist Lewis Mumford. Geddes also influenced several British urban planners (notably Raymond Unwin), the Indian social scientist Radhakamal Mukerjee and the Spanish architect Cebrià de Montoliu (1873-1923) as well as many other 20th century thinkers.
As an introduction to his work, Rutgers University Press has published the text of Geddes's first significant 1904 work, City Development, A Report to the Carnegie Dunfermline Trust.
Works
- Cities in Evolution by Patrick Geddes, Williams & Norgate, 1915
- The life and work of Sir Jagadis C. Bose by Patrick Geddes, Longmans London, 1920
See also
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