SIR PATTRICK 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".
SIR PATTRICK GEDDES

• He was a major influence on the American urban 1886 : SETTLED IN EDINBURGH

1892 : SET UP THE OUTLOOK TOWER
theorist Lewis Mumford. 1915 : SETTLED IN INDIA
• He was knighted in 1932, shortly before his death at the 1919 : DESIGNED THE CITY OF TEL AVIV
1924 : SETTLED IN FRANCE
Scots College in Montpellier, France on 17 April 1932. 1931 : KNIGHTED IN FRANCE
 CONCEPTS, EXPERIMENTS AND ACHIEVEMENTS

• Patrick Geddes explained an organism’s

relationship to its environment as follows:
• “The environment acts, through function,
PLACE
upon the organism and conversely the
organism acts, through function, upon the
environment.“ (Cities in Evolution, 1915)
• The needs and potentialities of the people
shape the character of the work, which in WORK PEOPLE

turn progressively modifies the environment. GEDDES’ TRIAD REPRESENTATION

Geddes argued that geography, economics and anthropology were so closely

related that their union within sociology was sure to yield rich results.
 CONCEPTS, EXPERIMENTS AND ACHIEVEMENTS

• In 1886, Geddes moved from Edinburgh's modern and

well planned new town to the decayed old town that
was plagued by poverty, overcrowding, squalor and
disease.
• Geddes purchased a row of slum tenements in James
court, in the old town, making it into a single dwelling.
• He advocated ‘conservative surgery’ which meant
weeding out the worst of the houses that surrounded
them, widening the narrow closes (lanes) into
courtyards and thus improving sunlight and airflow.
THE DECAYED OLD TOWN
 CONCEPTS, EXPERIMENTS AND ACHIEVEMENTS

• In 1884, Geddes established the Environment Society (later the Edinburgh Social Union) to
encourage local residents to survey, plan, and improve the local environment.
• He encouraged young students from the Castlehill School, to cultivate small plots of land in a
nearby garden and learn about nature by direct experience. This garden – the ‘Johnston Terrace
Garden’ exists till date, and is now a wildlife garden administered by World Wildlife Fund.

GEDDES’ YOUNG STUDENTS FROM THE THE SAME GARDEN TODAY.

CASTLEHILL SCHOOL CONDUCTING PRACTICAL
WORK IN THE JOHNSTON TERRACE GARDEN
 CONCEPTS, EXPERIMENTS AND ACHIEVEMENTS
• Geddes conducted yet another social experiment by setting
up the Outlook Tower in 1892.
• Geddes would rush the visitors to the top of the tower and
show them the view of the city through the camera. After
seeing the Camera Obscura, visitors sat in a darkened
meditation room – the “Inlook room” – to internalise what
they had learned, making it their own.
• Geddes wanted people to view the city without any
preconceived notions by reading any literature beforehand.
• After building their own perceptions of the city, the
theoretical exploration, cultural and ecological experiences,
would follow floor-by-floor below, in rooms devoted to
Edinburgh, Scotland, English-speaking nations, Europe and
the world. THE OBSERVATION TOWER
 CONCEPTS, EXPERIMENTS AND ACHIEVEMENTS

• Geddes’ next big project brought him to India in 1915.

• He spent the next eight years preparing nearly 40 town
planning reports for both the colonial government and the
rulers of princely states in India, describing the nature of urban
problems and solutions
• His work in the city of Indore is remembered as a classic GEDDES IN INDORE

example of his holistic approach in town planning.

• In 1914-15, Geddes was invited to deliver a series of four public
lectures on the study of Bombay.
• Subsequently, he was offered the post of professor and chair of
the department of sociology at the University of Bombay.

GEDDES WITH HIS STUDENTS AT THE

UNIVERSITY OF BOMBAY