The City in the The City in the RegionRegion

The Birth of Regional Planning: Edinburgh, New York, London, 1900-1940

Edinburghshire, Edinburgh, Princes Street in 1903

Downtown Manhattan as seen from the Empire State Building, 1931.

• Patrick Geddes(1854-1932)• Lewis Mumford(1895-1990)• The Regional Planning Association of

America (RPAA, 1923)• The RPAA vs the Regional Plan of New

York• New Deal Planning (1931-1945)• The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA,

1932)• The Real Success: Greater London Plan

• Introduction of the region planning concept and survey method

• The importance of regional survey and analysis of the relationship among ‘human, land and workplace’ before planning

• It is necessary to analyze the interdependent relationship between urban and regional environment from a ecological perspective

• An introduction to pioneers who initiated the study of greenbelt community and ecological urban planning such as Clarence Stein and Lewis Munford.

• catalyst for today's eco-city and sustainable city movement.

Patrick Geddes(1854-Patrick Geddes(1854-1932)1932)

• A Scottish biologist• A Social Evolutionist

and pioneering City Planner

• Geddes' work on regional surveys, cultural evolution, and urban sociology has become even more noticed since his death.

Patrick Geddes: Emphasis on the human scale and purpose.

Geddes and the Anarchist Geddes and the Anarchist TraditionTradition

• He was a fan of Kropotkin’s “anarchistic communism based on free confederations of autonomous regions”

• He believed in the earth as a cooperative planet where people should be taught how to properly treat their environment

• Peter Kropotkin(1842-1921), a Russian zoologist, activist, philosopher, economist, writer, scientist, evolutionary theorist, geographer and one of the world's foremost anarcho-communists.

Patrick Geddes(1854-Patrick Geddes(1854-1932)1932)

• Buddies with Lewis Mumford, who took Geddes’ somewhat rambling concepts, combined them with Ebenezer Howard’s concepts, and turned them into something actually implementable

Patrick Geddes(1854-Patrick Geddes(1854-1932)1932)

• Ideas of natural region, human response creating a cultural landscape (Place-Work-Folk), and finally survey before plan from French philosophers Reclus, Vidal and Le Play

Patrick Geddes’ SurveysPatrick Geddes’ Surveys

• Begin with“valley” section from mountain to sea

• Archeology of ancient cities provides understanding of environment as “motor force of human development”

• Planning must start with a survey of the resources of such a natural region, of the human response to it and the resulting complexities of the cultural landscape

A Total Reconstruction of A Total Reconstruction of Social and Political lifeSocial and Political life

• Geddes’ re-creation of regions was intended to provide the basis for a total reconstruction of social and political life, and renew life as in earlier eras and orders. He used the terms:

• Paleotechnic: crude introduction of technology (the Industrial Revolution)

• Neotechnic (Geddes’ vision, made possible by the automobile, electricity, etc.): possibility for conservation of resources, positive evolution through conscious planning of a Utopia based on neighborhood cooperatives, organized into larger and larger federations stretching all the way up to a global level. In this same vein he argues the League of Nations should actually be a league of cities.

Cities in EvolutionCities in Evolution (1915) (1915)

• The most coherent collection of his thoughts

• Identifies neotechnic technologies’, such as the combustion engine’s, potential to change urban dynamic form from one of conglomeration to one of dispersion

• Coins term “conuburation,” to describe city-regions or town aggregates – this would be termed Megalopolis (large city) 50 years later

Cities in EvolutionCities in Evolution (1915) (1915)• Geddes draw attention to the fact that the

new neotechnic technologies were already causing the great cities to disperse and thus to aggregate

• Seeks correct method of growth, to bring the country to the spreading urbanity; like Howard but on a REGIONAL level (i.e. Geotechnic – geography in planning)

• Geddes emphasized preservation of historical traditions, involvement of the people in their own betterment and the rediscovery of past traditions of city building

Geddes’ ImpactGeddes’ Impact

Geddes influenced the urban planning movement in many

different ways.

Geddes’ ImpactGeddes’ Impact

• His work on regional surveying influenced Lewis Mumford and numerous others.

• His method of considering social implications in city planning has carried over to the sustainable city projects of today.

What is Regional survey?

Small village in coastal Shandong Province, China

to an archaeologist, it involves inspecting large tracts of land for traces of past behaviors that are visible on or near the ground surface.

Implementing Regional Survey

Bronze age settlement on low hill above reservoir in coastal Shandong

Regional Survey in China

Gary Feinman on top of the large Han tomb at the site of Liangchengzhen

Map of the Shandong Survey Area

Field Methods in Regional Survey

Data Analysis in Regional Survey

Further Reading in Regional Survey

Bibliography of Regional Analysis, continued

Geddes’ ImpactGeddes’ Impact

• Geddes was already identifying the connections between society and spatiality, method and outlook, as being at the heart of integrated public policy understanding and implementation.

• His understanding of the connection between the individual and the environment, as described in his last major work, Life Outlines of General Biology, constitutes the core of modern planning.

Geddes’ ImpactGeddes’ Impact

• Geddes's great achievement in life has been the making of a bridge between Biology and Social Science

• Geddes was keenly interested in the science of ecology, an advocate of nature conservation and strongly opposed to pollution. Because of this, some historians have claimed he was a forerunner of modern Green politics.

The Regional Planning The Regional Planning Association of AmericaAssociation of America

(RPAA, 1923) (RPAA, 1923)

What is RPAA?What is RPAA?

• It was established in 1923 by a small, informal group of visionary planners, architects, sociologists and foresters.

• A group of planners destined to burn brightly but short lived, the RPAA included Lewis Mumford, Clarence Stein, Benton MacKaye, Catherine Bauer, Charles Harris Whitaker, as well as Wright, Ackerman, and others.

• The RPAA 5-fold program:• Garden cities in regions• Trans-Atlantic connections (especially with Geddes)• Appalachian Trail projects• Collaboration with American Institute of Architect’s

Community Planning committee to propagate regionalism• Survey of key areas (Tennessee Valley)

SurveySurvey magazine -- RPAA’s magazine -- RPAA’s manifestomanifesto

• They laid out an agenda for building and rebuilding American cities and metropolitan regions, and for preserving rural and wilderness areas.

• Included Mumford’s article on phases of migration in America. The 4th migration – based on neotechnic technologies can be planned;

• Intervention is necessary to correct gross inefficiencies of system; otherwise dinosaur-like older cities will be passed by.

• Regional production and consumption, mildly socialist, harkens back to Athens, seeks regional ecological balance

The Fourth MigrationThe Fourth Migration

• The Fourth migration – based on “the technological revolution that has taken place during the last thirty years – a revolution that has made the existing layout of cities and the existing distribution of population out of square with our new opportunities”

• In Mumford’s view, dense urban development patterns at that time were tied too closely to free market development and not to sound social policy

• Lewis Mumford on the city http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5b_59mls4M

"The City“(1938)"The City“(1938)

• The film features the ideas of Lewis Mumford and others who articulated RPAA's values and visions.

• Many parts of the story showcased in the film have been realized: the automobile has become a dominant means of transportation; the nation's housing has been upgraded significantly; and many open spaces have been protected.

Lewis Mumford(1895-Lewis Mumford(1895-1990)1990)

• Mumford is still regarded as the leading 20th century authority on cities — their history, design and communal purpose.

• Mumford believed that society could be improved through rational and ecologically sound planning

• Mumford contributed concepts of “a dispersed yet concentrated urban culture integrated with nature” which were integrated along with MacKaye’s concepts into the RPAA’s later projects.

• Lewis Mumford Centre http://mumford.albany.edu/mumford/chronology_lm.htm

Master-PupilMaster-Pupil • One of Geddes' best known

'students' • The young Mumford saw Geddes as

his mentor and most important teacher, someone who prompted an intellectual awakening, while also offering an important intimacy.

• “Geddes gave me the frame for my thinking: my task has been to put flesh on his abstract skeleton”

• A strained relationship• Their much-discussed

'collaboration', however, was abortive, partly owing to their incompatible learning styles, temperaments, and habits.

Also at the time – Also at the time – Southern IntellectualsSouthern Intellectuals

• Southern agrarians who reject North’s industrialism (Vanderbilt)

• Howard Odum: leader of Southern Regionalists – supports decentralized wealth, regenerating natural resources that had been exploited (UNC)

• Combined in The New Exploration (MacKaye, 1928) – seeks to conserve indigenous over metropolitan America by green motorways which extend metro, and wilderness preserves which check urban growth

The RPAA The RPAA vs vs

the Regional Plan of New Yorkthe Regional Plan of New York • Thomas Adams, a businessman’s planner, was hired

by the Russell Sage Foundation to head up the Regional Plan of New York. He believed in the art of the possible and mild controls.

• The resulting regional plan:• wide scope, volumes of survey (OK with RPAA)• philosophy not OK with RPAA – form of region fixed,

incremental change, Corbu-esque skyscrapers, re-centralization into center and only small movement of industry to sub-centers, no fixed plan on where people go (like garden cities), acceptance of growth

• Mumford condemns plan as “badly conceived pudding”

New Deal Planning (1931-New Deal Planning (1931-1945)1945)

• Franklin Delano Roosevelt was a fan of the RPAA program: mass return to the land, cooperative planning for the common good, industry to periphery, distribution of population.

• 1933 Public Works Bill: resettlement on land, creates Resettlement Administration, Green Belt Towns go nowhere (Rexford Tugwell, Stuart Chase sponsors)

• Agencies proliferate: National Resources Planning Board, National Planning Board, National Resources Committee – stay neutral on decentralization

The Tennessee Valley The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA, 1932)Authority (TVA, 1932)

• The greatest achievement of New Deal planning• Combined RPAA and Southern Regionalists but results

in little actual regional planning; aims to improve navigation, develop power sources, arms production, control floods to help Appalachia (one of the nation’s poorest regions).

• The “Dream Team”:• A.E. Morgan – Utopian planner (chair)• David Lilienthal – public power developer• Harcourt Morgan – Agricultural extensionist• A triumphant example of “grassroots democracy; still

seen as success

The Real Success: The Real Success: Greater London PlanGreater London Plan

• Thomas Adams, Unwin, Geddes, Ebenezer Howard applied American (RPAA) theories in Britain, but Patrick Abercrombie was the man behind the plan.

• 1927: Greater London Regional Planning Committee and 1933 report – weak, largely advisory, zoning still in infant stage; parkways, green wedges

• 1932: Town and Country Planning Bill – weak and Unwin leaves for US

• 1944: Greater London Plan – stronger– Abercrombie comes through, but still not enough for the

die-hards– Neighborhood units, road hierarchy, fast traffic highways,

concentric rings of decreasing population, open space structure, green belt around city

– Mumford: “Single best document on planning”– Eight satellite New Towns build by the mid 1960s– Flexible, adaptable despite fixed character– Absorbed into political and economic processes

The London Plan, 2011

• “the London Plan is only a decade old, the debate engendered by this document proves that Londoners understand its importance, and are serious about ensuring it provides a framework for their city to develop in ways that meet their needs and aspirations.”

• ---Boris Johnson, “THE LONDON PLAN, Spatial Development Strategy for Greater London”, July 2011

Mayor of London, Boris Johnson

Regional Planning in Regional Planning in TaiwanTaiwan

• Laws & Regulations • Regional Planning Act（區域計畫法）• Article 1 This Act is enacted to promote conservation and

utilization of lands and natural resources, and reasonable distribution of population and industrial activities, so as to accelerate economic development, improve living environment, and enhance public welfare.( 為促進土地及天然資源之保育利用，人口及產業活動之合理分布，以加速 並健全經濟發展，改善生活環境，增進公共福利，特制定本法 )

• Article 3 A regional plan referred to in this Act means a regional development plan formulated according to the mutually depended and common-interest relations between geography, population, resources, and economic activities.( 本法所稱區域計畫，係指基於地理、人口、資源、經濟活動等相互依賴及 共同利益關係，而制定之區域發展計畫 )

台灣地區計畫體系圖 ┌──────────┐

│ 台灣地區綜合開發計畫│ └──────────┘

↓ ┌────────┐ │ 台灣南部區域計畫│ └────────┘

↓ ┌──────────────┐

┌─────┴─────┐ ┌────┴───┐│ 非都市土地使用計畫 │ │ 都 市 計 畫 │

└─────┬─────┘ └────┬───┘ └──────────────┘

↓ ┌─────────┐

│ 都 市 化 地 區 │ │ 山 坡 地 │

│ 環 境 敏 感 地 │ │ 海 岸 地 區 │

└─────────┘

AfterthoughtAfterthought

• The Fifth migration - From real world to virtual world?

• The Sixth migration - From the earth to the universe?

AfterthoughtAfterthought

• The definition of "region" needs some rethinking?

• In the days of the RPAA, there were only six regions in the nation. Today, every city-suburb pair seems to be calling itself a region.

QuestionsQuestions

• Can social problems be "solved" by manipulating physical form? especially since the agendas of 60 years ago and today are not the same