User:Smg385/Patrick Geddes

Smaller Additions
From 1888 to 1918, Geddes worked as a Professor of Botany at the University of Dundee.

Geddes passed away in 1932 at Scots College in Montpellier.

Work in India (additions)
Once arriving in India, Geddes toured multiple Indian cities and was overwhelmed by Indian architecture and planning. Geddes was impressed by the historical piety valued in Indian planning displayed by the seamless merger of traditional temples within the urban fabric of Indian cities. Geddes believed that this was indicative of a city's genius loci which is often established by a visually dominant building in a city like a medieval cathedral or an antique temple in the urban fabric. Geddes was outspoken in his town-planning reports about the “insensitivity of British colonial administration towards the historic Indian architecture and urban environment” and denounced their methods of planning which included drastic and destructive changes to the urban fabric.

Paleotechnic vs Neotechnic
Based on his understanding of concepts of biology, Geddes distinguished two forms of human social life: ‘paleotechnic’ and ‘neotechnic.’ He viewed the former as self-destructive but the latter as self-supporting. In the context of cities, paleotechnic cities are those characterized by competition while neotechnic is characterized by interaction. This is coupled by the paleotechnic city’s desire for expansion as compared to the neotechnic city’s ability to form communities and conurbations. Geddes attributed the destruction of cities via World War I not to the invasion of imperialist powers but the prevalence of paleotechnic forms of life in European society.

The Outlook Tower
With the goal of educating people on the varying outlooks of their region and their larger environment, Geddes produced the Outlook Tower, located in Edinburgh, as a civic and regional museum—the world’s first sociological laboratory. Geddes would host tours throughout the tower and boast its maps, photographs, and projection via ‘camera obscura’ in order to present the sociological dimensions of cities, urban problems, and town planning. During his tours he would use the camera obscura on the top floor to demonstrate the outlook of an artist then take visitors to the balcony to show the outlook of technical professionals like geologists, geographers, etc. He used specific instruments and tools to better convey the outlook different people had of the region. The Outlook Tower is a physical assertion of Geddes belief in the importance of all areas of knowledge; all arts, all sciences, all, religions, all cultures, ect. It embodies the integration of local, the regional, and the global. Geddes used it as a tool for cultural and regional analysis and provided space for many thinkers to explore the idea of 'regions.'