The Outlook Tower, Edinburgh

Patrick Geddes, Camera Obscura, Outlook Tower, Edinburgh

"From the high garden, or from one of your tree-top castles, you look out upon everything, you see for miles and miles; but in your dark little caves in the ivy-bank you can sit and dream. Up in your tree-castle you often sit dreaming, of course; and from your hidden cave, through it's ivy curtain, you love to peep; still, in the main, one is the Out-world's Watch-tower, the other the In-world's Gate."

Geddes P., The World Without And The World Within, Sunday Talks With My Children, 1905

Patrick Geddes explains that what he calls the "Out-world" is the world we see around us, every day. He explains to his children that the light from the roof of the outlook tower is a way into the "In-world", our thoughts and memories. The "In-world" is where we begin actively thinking and planning; and then in carrying out our plans we come back into the "Out-world" once again.

As well as being what Geddes calls a "Civic Observatory", the outlook tower is a physical embodiment of this philosophy.