From the Curator of Museum Services at the University of Dundee :
This new exhibition marks the centenary of the publication of Patrick Geddes’ Cities in Evolution (1915) and the associated Cities Exhibitions. This exhibition features original archival material, much of it never displayed or published before, plus current work by affiliates of the Geddes Institute for Urban Research at the University of Dundee.
The exhibition is a research project whose aim is to evaluate Geddes’ thinking at a time when city regions are under increasing pressure to accommodate new populations without losing sight of their natural heritage and sustainability.
Sir Patrick Geddes, the polymathic Scottish planner and botanist, published Cities in Evolution in 1915. This seminal text on civics promoted his Cities Exhibitions which he organised from 1910 onwards. He also proposed local Civic Exhibitions as permanent institutions in each city centre which he argued were a necessary condition for democracy.
This important exhibition on Geddes’ thought and work has three parts: city plans from Geddes’ touring Cities Exhibitions; his thinking and lecturing diagrams, drawn from the archives at the Universities of Strathclyde, Edinburgh and Dundee; and recent architecture and planning projects by affiliates of the Geddes Institute for Urban Research.
Geddes’ diagrams have not to our knowledge been exhibited or published before, nor have these plans been brought to the public view since the Outlook Tower closed in 1949.
The exhibition runs until 12th December and will be open Monday-Friday 9.30am to 7pm and Saturday 1pm to 5pm (please note these new opening hours for the Tower Building).