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Patrick Geddes and the Edinburgh Zoological Garden: Expressing Universal Processes Through Local Place

Patrick Geddes, urban planner, botanist, philosopher, and designer, was responsible for developing a vision of the relationship between a city and its region, the ‘valley section,’ that is reflected in his work on the Edinburgh Zoological Garden in the early twentieth century. Geddes developed a three-dimensional expression of this hypothetical valley section in the plan for the zoo, where he articulated his ideas on the importance of educating people through direct and multisensory experience. The zoo was to be a model for interaction between life and the environment, allowing reflection on how the highest attainment of human development may be linked to the most primitive of origins. This article draws on Geddes’s writings, on existing critiques and analyses of his work, and on original archival material to explore the principles behind Geddes’s designs for the zoo as a didactic experience. The innovative placement of animals in naturalistic settings that characterised the zoo layout exemplified Geddes’s approach to environmental design and education. It is a rare example of his design translated into practice and illuminates his role in contributing to the development of contemporary pedagogy as well as to the design and planning theory of such influential followers as Lewis Mumford.