Patrick Geddes

Biologist, sociologist, geographer and Town Planner

About Sir Patrick Geddes 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 1888.

His principles for town planning in Bombay demonstrate his views on the relationship between social processes and spatial form, and the intimate and causal connections between the social development of the individual and the cultural and physical environment. They included: ( 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. 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.

Concepts.. 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)

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, on a

place and thus shape it. Thus both place and folk are linked and

through work are in constant transition.

Geddian Trio Representation

WORK

FOLK

.

PLACE

Patrick Geddes was influenced by social theorists such as 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.

According to Geddes, it is from "stable, healthy homes" providing the necessary conditions for mental and moral development that come beautiful and healthy children who are able "to fully participate in life".

Geddes and 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.

Geddes illustrated the section using the locally available landscapes of Edinburgh and its hinterland

Tel-Aviv (Israel)The Geddes Plan for Tel Aviv was the first master city plan for Tel Aviv.

It was designed in 1925-1929 by the Scottish city planner Sir Patrick Geddes.

This program designed the centre of Tel Aviv and the area now known as "Old North".

In 1925 Patrick Geddes was commissioned to design a master plan for the city of Tel Aviv.

The plan he produced was accepted in 1929.

Tel Aviv turned out to be the only example of one of Geddes’ plans being built largely as he envisaged and is a good example of an early planned city.

The area of Tel Aviv originally planned by Geddes makes up approximately 7.5% of the current day municipality of Tel Aviv and is now known as Tel Aviv’s “Old North”.

It was designed to be an extension of the much older neighbouring Arabic port town Jaffa to the south and a home for the increasing population of Jews emigrating from other parts of the world (predominantly Eastern Europe).

Geddes, originally as biologist and sociologist was engaged to design a plan for the new city of Tel Aviv to be built adjacent to the ancient port town of Jaffa.

The principles he employed for the city were strikingly similar to what we now know as New Urbanism ideas of planning - an emphasis was placed on pedestrians as opposed to motor car traffic, a sense of community and civic life was encouraged through the use of town squares and abundant planting of greenery provided significant focus on a minimal environmental footprint.

Private automobile traffic was minimised and the city was envisaged on a pedestrian-scale. This neighbourhood identity has been crucial in the success of Tel Aviv as a city.

Conurbation

Conurbations 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 motorised 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 labour 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.

Examples of Conurbation

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.

UNITED KINGDOM Industrial and housing growth in the United

Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries produced many conurbations. 

Greater London is by far the largest urban area and is usually counted as a conurbation in statistical terms, but differs from the others in the degree to which it is focused on a single central area. In the mid-1950s the Green Belt was introduced to stem the further urbanisation of the countryside in UK.

The term "conurbation" is closer to the meaning of urban agglomeration.

The list below shows the most populous urban areas in the UK as defined by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). The Greater London Urban Area contains the whole of what is commonly called London, but ONS definitions divide London into a large number of smaller localities of which the largest is Croydon.

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.

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.

URBAN AREA POPULATION PRIMARY SETTELEMENT

Greater London Urban Area 8,979,158 LONDON

Greater Manchester Urban Area

2,362,849 MANCHESTER

West Midlands Urban Area 2,362,065 BIRMINGHAM

West Yorkshire Urban Area 1,616,608 LEEDS

Greater Glasgow 1,195,200 GLASGOW

Tyneside 908,446 NEWCASTLE

Liverpool Urban Area 805,578 LIVERPOOL

Nottingham Urban Area 714,353 NOTTIGHAM

URBAN CONURBATION IN U.K.

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 countries worldwide.

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

MAHARASHTRA- A CASE STUDY

Mumbai- Economic and Capital city Nasik- Religious city Aurangabad- Administrative city Nagpur- Political city Pune-Educational importance city

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 109 sub-divisions of the districts and 357 Talukas in Maharashtra.

The six administrative divisions in Maharashtra state are Amravati Division, Aurangabad Division, Konkan Division, Nagpur Division, Nashik Division, and Pune Division.

The Admistrational aspect of Maharashtra is quite a unique factor since six divisions are set up as a network working together to form a well efficient an d working governance.

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