ASSIGNMENT-10

TOWN PLANNING

SIR PATRICK GEEDES

SUBMITTED TO: SUBMITTED BY:

AR. POOJA AGARWAL BRIJESH VARSHNEY

B.ARCH 4th YR.
7th SEMESTER
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 to1888.

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.
THE GEEDESIAN TRIAD
 Patrick Geddes was influenced by
social theorists such as Herbert
Spencer (1820–1903) andFrench
theorist Frederic Le Play (1806–
1882) and expanded upon earlier
theoretical developments thatlead
to the concept ofregional 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 asconstituting "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 unitof human
society "from which all else develops.
THE VALLEY SECTION
 In 1909, Geddes assisted in the early planning of the southern aspect of the Zoological
Gardens in Edinburgh.This work was formative in his development of a regional planning
model called the "Valley Section"
This model illustrated the complex interactions among biogeography, geomorphology and human
systems and attempted to demonstrate how "natural occupations" such as hunting,mining,or fishing
are supported by physical geographies that in turn determine patterns of human settlement.The point
of this model was to make clear the complex and interrelated relationships between humans and their
environment,and to encourage regional planning models that would be responsive to these
conditions.
CONURBATION IN USA
• 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-Bostonin 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 canbe 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.

EXAMPLE OF CONURBATION
NEWYORK
• The expansive concept of the New York
metropolitan area (theTri-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 areashave
merged.
TEL AVIV , ISRAEL
THE PLANNING
 The Ged d es Plan forTel Aviv was the first

master city plan forTel Aviv.

 It was designed in 1925-1929 by

the Scottish city planner Sir Patrick Geddes.

 This program designed the centre ofTel Aviv

and the area now known as " O l d North".

 In 1925 Patrick Geddes was commissioned to

design a master plan for the city ofTel 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.

FEATURES OF THE PLANNING

 Geddes, originally as biologist and sociologist was engaged to design a plan for the new city

ofTel 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 neighborhood identity has been crucial in the success ofTel Aviv as a city.

THE SUPER BLOCK

 Another important aspect of Ged d es plan was the use of the“super block,”which was popular in

the early to mid 20th century with its origins in the modernist movement.

 The main principles was to create extra large blocks bounded by major rather than minor roads, and

have them threaded with narrow one way streets designed in such a way to discourage through
traffic.

 The aim of these superblocks was to foster community and a sense of civic life within them.
GARDENS AND ARCHITECTURE
 Geddes took part of his inspiration from the Garden City movement developed by Ebenezer
Howard,he was keen to ensure that greenery was an integral part of the Tel Aviv landscame.To this
end,under his plan buildings were restricted to taking up a maximum of only one third of any
given site,these restrictions aimed to ensure maximum potential for neighborhoods well endowed
with lush greenery

 Geddes did not prescribe a certain architectural style for the area,traditionally a city planned of
along the lines of the british Garden City Movement would aim for an architectural style based
on the traditional style for the region. Geddes recognised that the majority of the population he
was designing for would be immigrants from Europe and other parts of the world. He
encouraged the development of a distinctly‘Jewish style’.Interestingly Geddes provide little
more that this style recommendations in his planning report.

CRITICISM
 Critics of Tel Aviv’s layout have suggested it is not a beautiful city in the classic sense.A low
standard of construction and of housing units (apartment buildings) has largely been blamed
for this,citing that the buildings developed were ugly and akin to stacks of packing cases with
shoeboxes for balconies.

 Further criticism has been put that the city has not coped well with the increasing population and
private car traffic not envisaged by Geddes at the time. Poor building construction and lack of
proper maintenances have served as further critiques of the early city planning.

 Notwithstanding these criticisms of Geddes planning ofTel Aviv,while not immune to the modern

problems of traffic and development that all cities today face, Tel Aviv is widely regarded as a
successful city and symbol of modern day Israel.

CONURBATION IN INDIA , MAHARASHTRA

Principles of planning
 Preservation of human life and energy,rather than superficial beautification.

 Conformity toan orderly development plan carried out in stages.

 Purchasing land suitable for building.

 Promoting trade andcommerce.

 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.
CONSTELLATION THEORY
 As we all saw in the map, prominent cities in

Maharashtra are shown tobe

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 aparticular

shape pattern is not possible in Today’stimes.

MAHARASHTRA – A CASE STUDY

 Mumbai- Economic and Capital city

 Nasik- Religious city

 Aurangabad- Administrativecity

 Nagpur- Political city

 Pune-Educational importance city

 Since, all the five factors necessary for development of a region aredivided with five different
place , the administration of that region has a gradual progressing path, because a certain region
doesn’t havethe

 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.