This idea isn’t new; it was first proposed more than a century ago by the Scottish geographer, biologist and father of regional planning, Patrick Geddes. Human development for Geddes was all about the natural landscape, the ‘active, experienced environment’ that shapes everything we do.106 Like Howard, he deplored urban sprawl, in particular the tendency of cities to merge into one continuous metropolitan splurge, a phenomenon for which he coined the term ‘conurbation’. His solution was to protect rural areas close to cities, not by a green belt but with a series of rural ‘fingers’ radiating
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