Patrick Geddes

Sir Patrick Geddes FRSE (2 October 1854 – 17 April 1932) was a Scottish biologist, sociologist, geographer, philanthropist and pioneering town planner (see List of urban theorists). 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".

An energetic Francophile, Geddes was the founder in 1890 of the Collège des Écossais (Scots College) an international teaching establishment in Montpellier, France and in the 1920s he bought the Château d'Assas to set up a centre for urban studies.

Biography

The son of Janet Stevenson and soldier Alexander Geddes, Patrick Geddes was born in Ballater, Aberdeenshire, and educated at Perth Academy.

He studied at the Royal College of Mines in London under Thomas Henry Huxley between 1874 and 1877, never finishing any degree and he then spent the year 1877-1878 as a demonstrator in the Department of Physiology in University College London where he met Charles Darwin in Sanderson's Lab. He lectured in Zoology at Edinburgh University from 1880 to 1888.