Hyderabad Biophilia is an exploration of
man’s affinity towards the natural world,
through the unrealised planning work of
Scottish polymath Patrick Geddes and Indian
town-planner Mohammed Fayazuddin.
Although from diverse backgrounds and
different generations, both visionaries shared
an inherent understanding of the value of
the natural world and its importance in
contemporary urban life.
Interwoven with the proposed Eutopias is a
running narrative by the American scientist
Edward O. Wilson, from his 1984 publication
“Biophilia.” In many ways, the scientific
discoveries in late 20th Century that Wilson
expounds upon were proposed in spatial
forms by both Geddes and Fayazuddin half
a century earlier.
Structured as a series of imaginary historical
explorations, the contemporary reader is
encouraged to fully engage one’s imagination
— envisioning the biophilic city that might
have been.Geddes’ Osmania
On Christmas Day, 1922, Patrick Geddes arrived
in Hyderabad to commence the exploratory
process of site selection for the Nizam’s
proposed Urdu University. Eleven sites were
surveyed in total, and a 1200-acre parcel ofland (eventually increased to 2000 acres
through acquisition) at Amberpet was finalised
in what the polymath described as “a first rate
one [site] unsurpassed in my experience.”
Further describing the site selected in his
1923 Osmania University Report, he continues,
“Probably no other University site presents
such a variety of ups and downs, of contours
and levels; at any rate among the travels and
collections of many years. I can find no other
area so full of difficulties; and of course
thus opportunities accordingly. Only the hill-
site of Jerusalem University can compare
with this one; but there is only one single
complex hill-top to be occupied, while here