Scotsman Sir Patrick Geddes is regarded as the modern-day father of city planning. Born on 2 October 1854 in Ballater, Aberdeenshire, Sir Patrick believed town planning was more than just “place” planning. Instead, it was primarily “people” planning. He considered the planner in charge of transforming the city’s personality and goals into something people could relate to, arguing that the city was not a machine but rather a complex tapestry or organism. Geddes’s concepts on building with nature to make it an integral part of the physical contour of the cityscape to form the basis of planning are just as relevant today as they were in his day. Henceforth, this article will discuss planning from Sir Patrick Geddes’s perspective and outline his contributions to urban planning.
The Concept of Ecological Planning for Cities
Sir Geddes’s city concept included open green spaces, parks, gardens, trees and blue infrastructure. He believes that the well-being and magnificence of a city, working with and in collaboration with nature, was essential. His close contact with the countryside heavily influences this concept throughout his childhood. As a result, nature was included in his town plans as an essential component of the urban environment that had to be constructed following the natural environment. Not just to beautify a city but also as an essential component and presence in the built environment, building alongside nature and treating nature as an essential component of the cityscape’s physical contour.
His fundamental strategy lays out welcoming, healthy, culturally rich, and environmentally friendly cities for everyone — men and women, rich and poor, old and young — without substantially destroying existing structures and causing excessive expense. In a couple of reports, Sir Geddes commends the different civil planning experts for their endeavours towards upgrades, however overall he pointedly censures their mechanical, inefficient and costly plans of city improvement, for ignoring what is important and can be reestablished with less expense and exertion.
The Principles of Planning According to Geddes
Contrary to popular misconception, town planning was not a brand-new subfield of engineering, sanitation, architecture, building, or gardening. It was not even a new specialization to be added to the ones already there; Sir Geddes claimed its bigger goal was to bring them all together “in the interest of civic well-being.” He brought the medical science-based concepts of “diagnostic survey” and “conservative surgery,” which served as the foundation for the entire planning process, to town planning.
Although the concept of “diagnosis before treatment” proposed by Sir Geddes was novel in the field of town planning at the time and is still underappreciated today, it may now seem too obvious to merit attention. The goal of conservative surgery was to make the city better with as little human and financial expense as possible. He believed every city had its rundown areas with decaying houses, filthy neighbourhoods, congested and narrow streets, and natural systems that had been neglected but could be improved and renewed without resorting to drastic and costly destruction methods or removing them. His town plans were based on his belief that the city was an organism rather than a machine whose parts could be easily thrown away.
Contribution to Urban Planning
Geddes believed that adaptation involved two parties. Regional cultures, on the one hand, adapt their local environment to meet human needs, but the social and ecological conditions of their particular environment limit these adaptations. Therefore, the complementary process that is just as significant to the adaptation of ecosystems by their inhabitants is the adaptation of local cultures to particular conditions in the ecosystem. Nature and culture are inseparable and mutually supportive in a healthy system. If the 21st century is to mark the end of ecological overshoot and reintegration of humanity into natural processes and limits, this is the essential lesson that humanity must relearn on a global and local scale. Geddes accepted that ʻour most prominent need today is to see life as wholeʼ because he comprehended that solid networks rely upon sound environments and a sound biosphere and because how we configure relies on how we see the world and ourselves.
In terms of ecological planning and design, ecological economics, and bioregionalism, Sir Patrick Geddes’s work can be seen as a precursor. Even though they aren’t always credited with being the result of his work, many of Sir Geddes’s ideas are still influential today. His hypotheses have normally been adjusted in language and setting to contemporary talk. In any case, there are major illustrations of manageable improvement to be reasoned from Sir Geddesʼs work.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the bioregional planning approach, which integrates ecological, socio-cultural, and economic considerations on a regional scale, is one of the key Geddessian impulses that still require additional consideration in the contemporary context of sustainable development. the accentuation on transdisciplinary training as an essential for informed city interest and social change; and a comprehensive approach to design and decision-making that takes into account the contributions of various human knowledge fields.
References:
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- Geddes, P. (2018) Town Planning Towards City Development: A report to the Durbar of Indore: Volumes 1 and 2. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.
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- Munshi, I. (2022) Patrick Geddes’ Contribution to Sociology and Urban Planning: Vision of a City. New York, NY: Routledge.
- Munshi, I. (2022) Patrick Geddes: Urban Planning for Social and Cultural Renewal, Question of Cities. Question of Cities. Available at: https://questionofcities.org/patrick-geddes-urban-planning-for-social-and-cultural-renewal/ (Accessed: March 28, 2023).
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- Pepler, G.L. (1955) “Geddes’ Contribution to Town Planning,” Town Planning Review, 26(1), pp. 19–24. Available at: https://doi.org/10.3828/tpr.26.1.u02775g40240m504.
- Wahl, D.C. (2017) Design and Planning for People in Place: Sir Patrick Geddes (1854–1932) and the Emergence of Ecological Planning, Ecological Design, and Bioregionalism, Medium. Medium. Available at: https://designforsustainability.medium.com/design-and-planning-for-people-in-place-sir-patrick-geddes-1854-1932-and-the-emergence-of-2efa4886317e (Accessed: March 30, 2023).
- Welter, V.M. (2002) Biopolis: Patrick Geddes and the City of Life. Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
