INTRODUCTION

Cities are probably the most complex things that human beings have ever created. They are the wellsprings of culture, technology, wealth and power. People have a love-hate relationship with cities. We are torn between our needs for community and privacy and the conflicting attractions of urban and rural life.

The technique of diagnostic survey, commonplace in planning practice today, is the somewhat belated result of Patrick Geddes' work in India four decades ago: the City Improvement Trusts in existence since the 1800's are models of their kind.

Patrik geddes

Patrik abbercomby

by aman thakur

by aakash yamba

Patrick Geddes (Father of Regional Planning)

brief introduction
BORN DIED October 2nd, 1854 April 17th , 1932

Sir Patrick Geddes was a Scottish town planner. He introduced the concept of "region" to architecture and planning and is also known to have coined the term "conurbation (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). 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. Patrick Geddes, who was highly influenced by earlier theorists such as Herbert Spencer (1820-1903) and Frederic Le Play, 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.

French theorist Frederic Le Play, theorize that society could be explained by the interactions among three units of society including place, work and family.

single chord of social life

Geddes adapted these theories, changing the last Le Play's social units from "family" to "folk".
From Geddes perspective, the purpose of his theory was to understanding relationships among the units of society and to find an equilibrium among people and the environment to improve conditions. In the context of this theory, family was viewed as the central biological unit of human society. His central argument was that physical geography, market economics and anthropology were related to yield a single chord of social life of all three combine. Interdisciplinary subjects of sociology was developed as the science of mans interaction with a natural environment; the basic technique was the regional survey, and the improvement of town planning.

market economics

anthropology

physical geography

Against a backdrop of extraordinary development of new technologies, industrialization and urbanism, Geddes witnessed a substantial social consequences of crime, illness, poverty among others that developed as a result of modernization.

He believed in the earth as a cooperative planet where people should be taught how to properly treat their environment . Specifically, Geddes' web of life aimed to: educate children; improve the physical quality of people by using new biological knowledge to produce better medicine; and understand the human influence on ecology. These ideas lead to his notion of utopia, a Utopia which was realizable here and now. Geddes' insight on the hill was about the interdependence of city and region: The latter supplied resources, routes and character; the city provided markets, work and services .

THE OUTLOOK TOWER

In 1892, to allow the general public an opportunity to observe these relationships, Geddes opened a sociological laboratory called the Outlook Tower that documented and visualized the regional landscape. The Outlook Tower was a disused observatory with a camera obscura when Geddes took it over and used it as a center for developing and spreading his ideas. The first four floors had been part of two seventeenth-century town houses on narrow lots. The upper floors and the tower were added in the mid-nineteenth century when the town houses were made into an observatory. Geddes inscribed the motto vivendo discimus above the entrance to the Outlook Tower to signify his belief in a living museum where knowledge would be applied, not just stored. A tour of the museum begins at the top where a camera obscura allowed for a survey of the region surrounding Edinburgh.

From the top of the tower, a visitor would descend from one floor to the next, observing the wealth of synthesized knowledge concerning Edinburgh (5th floor), Scotland (4th floor), Great Britain (3rd floor), Europe (2nd floor), and the world (1st floor).
The descent progressed from an understanding of one's immediate region to its impact on a global scale, emphasizing the connection between humans and the environment.
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INDIA
Geddes' interest for india began in Chicago in February 1900 when he had met the famous Indian guru Swami Vivekanda. In 1914, after enjoying some success with the Cities and Town Planning Exhibition, he decided to take his studies to India. He visited four times between 1914 and 1924, staying for two and a half years between 1916 and 1919. India's different culture and lack of industrial development provided another platform for Geddes to further his approach to urban planning. Among the many problems facing India were the extreme poverty and obscenely overcrowded slums plaguing India's rapidly growing cities. Writing to the Maharaja of Kapurthala in 1917 he described how the transitions in an Indian city "form an inseparably interwoven structure", (not) "as an involved network of roads dividing masses of building blocks, but as a great chessboard on which the manifold game of life is in active progress. In India Geddes extended his ideas about regional surveying, cooperation between man and the environment, synthesis of knowledge , historical traditions, involvement of the people in their own betterment and the rediscovery of past traditions of city building. Among the many problems in India were the extreme poverty and overcrowded slums plaguing India's rapidily growing cities. In addressing these problems, Geddes wanted to revive indigenous customs and use them for modern purpose. 7

He expressed his unambiguous disagreement with Lutyens' plan for New Delhi. For example, Geddes' method of decongestion was a 'conservative' survey. Intensive, on-the- spot surveying led to working out the minimum number of the most dilapidated houses to be pulled down in a manner such that open spaces were created within the congested areas allowing ventilation for each surrounding house. The fewer families displaced can then be resettled in to a developed area with a basic standard of housing and environmental hygiene. The new open spaces would be used for tree planting, as community squares, as a little green patch for kitchen-gardening, etc. The DDA master plan incorporated a lot of his ideas-detailed surveys to know the existing situation and project into the future, a comprehensive plan, an attempt at categorizing areas meant for conservation, rehabilitation or clearance, the 'mohalla' concept for residential areas. Many components of the DDA plans show that the stream of thought was of Geddes. Prototype plans prepared for redevelopment of different types of slums, the concept of village clusters within the city, the experimentation with local tube- wells and piped water system in resettlement colonies all reflect the Geddesian approach at work. His work on regional surveying influenced Lewis Mumford and numerous others. Mumford, however, did not totally accept Geddes' ideas on social reconstruction. Yet, the method of considering social implications in city planning has carried over to the sustainable city projects of today.

Geddes idea for a city

(a)To start from a given situation and let the plan evolve itself.

(b) To make best use of resources existing within the setting.

(c) To understand social, economic and cultural conditions through direct contact and to plan accordingly. The residents' physical, social and psychological needs to be taken into account.

(d) To take the residents along by use of cultural symbols which will be supported by the positive beneficial results they will themselves perceive because of the appropriate planning and solid action taken.
(e) To conserve and promote the good in local tradition, without any emotionalism about 'tradition'.

(f) To take a humanistic approach considering people's life as a whole and not just, say sanitation.
(g) Special attention to be given to the poor but basic principles to be applied to all.