… is a blog, run by Gehl Architects, where we share experiences and knowledge and explore creative solutions to making cities places of quality for all people.
If you find yourself in Copenhagen these days, you might have noticed that people are behaving a little bit differently. It seems as if more people are smiling, holding their heads up a little higher, walking a little slower and just standing around – at corners, up against walls, coming up from the metro etc., all because they want to enjoy the first rays of spring sun. This of course raises numerous questions… Where are they standing? Do more women than men stop to rest? Are they walking more slowly? What factors in the built environment can make us stop and enjoy the sun and the city life?
At the end of May, the Danish publisher Bogværket will publish the book Bylivsstudier by Jan Gehl and Birgitte Svarre. The book is filled with inspiration on how to go out in the city and study city life. In the fall, the book will be out in the US, published by Island Press and titled How to study public life. The book both presents tools on how to study the relationship between the built form and life, as well as a historic perspective on the field of city life studies.
This is what Professor of Sustainability at Curtin University, Peter Newman writes about the book:
“For decades the Public Space Public Life Studies developed by Jan Gehl and his team in Copenhagen have been a great inspiration for professionals, academics and city planners in all parts of the world. I have experienced their work in several cities but have never known how they do it. Now all is revealed and their secret tools are available to everyone in “How to Study Public Life”. It’s just a matter now of getting out there and putting them to use.”
While we wait for the book to be released, we invite you to comment on how you have studied city life. Have you made any interesting observations; do you have references of interesting studies or reflections on different types of methods? For instance manual versus automatic; qualitative versus quantitative studies; Observations or interviews. We would love to know more about your experiences of studying public life!
Thirty people from the office went to the opening and saw the exhibit for the first time together
My first book Life Between Buildings was published 41 years ago. Yet today in 2012 the book, and people oriented planning principles embodied in it continues to be much in demand. I’m delighted and humbled by the staying power of these planning principles which is most recently exemplified by the great international interest in my latest book Cities for People. Already by 2012 this book will be published in 10 languages and a number of new versions are lined up for 2013.
Yet despite this praise and continued interest in the people oriented planning principles, places, districts and entire cities continue to be developed without any reference to principles along these lines. This is not an issue of negligence, but of neglect. For over the past 50 years, none of those entrusted with building cities – neither architects, planners nor engineers – have been trained to focus on looking after the needs of people. The growing interest in my work from numerous professions and disciplines attests to the fact that this is thankfully changing. There appears to be a genuine and powerful trend of politicians, technocrats and citizens alike beginning to demand that Cities become more liveable, safer, healthier, and indeed more sustainable.
It is a great joy for me to see these timeless principles for caring for the life in the cities presented in a new format (animated film) and in a new context joining several Scandinavian colleagues at the New Nordic Architecture Exhibit at Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, North of Copenhagen. The principles illustrated at Louisiana are very much the same today as they were many years ago. People are still people.
The film is in-the-round and divided into three sections, life, mobility and scale
It is equally a joy for me to see Gehl Architects continue to evolve these guiding core values and principles to many different types of projects and scales of intervention. Working with partners around the world, this young, energetic and stubbornly optimistic team work to tailor and contextualize design, planning and research that builds upon the foundation established during the many years of research and dialogues. This team is actively engaging in dialogue around the world with colleagues, clients and collaborators to add layers of meaning and new possibilities for application of these core values. In doing so, Gehl Architects, as the other design practices featured in the Loisianna exhibit, continue to build upon a wider Nordic tradition for architecture and design that is rooted in a fundamental care and appreciation for the human being.
As we progress through the 21st century, I’m confident that the continued dedication of a new generation of city makers – from economists to social scientists to architects to business owners and politicians – that care for the city from a human centered perspective of the Nordic tradition will ensure that the cities of tomorrow will be much better for people than the cities of today.
We are very excited to have kicked off projects in Moscow this summer with the launch of Cities for People, New City Spaces and Life Between Buildings in Russian, published this spring by PSF Krost Ltd. The occasion was marked with a reception held by the Danish Ambassador attended by Minister of Environment Anton Kulbachevskiy and Jan Gehl. We have been appointed by the Mayor of Moscow to complete a Public Space Public Life study of the city centre and during the summer we will be working with local students to gather a wide net of data from across the city, the first of its kind in Moscow. The project is led by Ola Gustafsson, Solvejg Reigstad and Henriette Vamberg and they will be joined by Jan Gehl in mid-September who will be speaking at the University of Moscow in a series of events exact dates of which we will add here as they come through. The study commenced in May and will be concluded in December 2012. We look forward to a concentrated and meaningful engagement with the city and its citizens over the coming months and will be updating on news and thoughts on the city here soon. Moscow here we come!
Realdania hosted a great conference in Copenhagen with wonderful speakers such as Bruce J. Katz from the Brookings Institution, Richard Burdett from LSE and Senior Consultant with Gehl Architects Rob Adams, City Architect of Melbourne.
Rob Adams, Photographer: Claus Bjørn Larsen
Photographer: Claus Bjørn Larsen
Realdania has taken forward a brave scenario for Denmark 2050 basing its growth on a green sustainable economy. Bruce furthermore underlined the importance of regions as drivers of economic sustainable growth, and how regions need to collaborate in order to compete. On an urban level Bruce argued for a densification of urban nodes in cities and importantly how the new green economy requires a focus on place making, without going in to much detail about what that might be.
Rob showed on the other hand the great Melbourne story of the past 25 years of sustainable development in Melbourne based on local qualities, and local culture and memory, giving meaning to the understanding of what place making is really about – creating cities that are authentic and sustainable not only in an economic and environmental sense, but certainly also in terms of social sustainability and quality of life for people.
This factor was furthermore underlined by the example of London by Richard, now using their Olympic opportunity to stitch together the eastern part of London by way of providing more diversity of housing stock and parks, reconnecting the urban tissue of land, urban form and people.
The book Spatial Culture is a response to the otherwise dominant visual culture. It has articles on dance in NYC, the experience of darkness on Christiania, the writings of Rem Koolhaas, the rebuilding of Dresden’s Frauenkirche and lot’s more. With Pia Rost Rasmussen, I have written an article on the plans for Ørestad, a new part of Copenhagen. It is a reading of the competition programme with the use of French philosopher Michel de Certeau’s terms. The anthology is mainly in Danish, but abstracts and image texts are in English + an introduction in English by Henrik Reeh setting the scene for spatial culture and an article by Alberto Pérez-Gómez from McGill, Canada.
If you are in town, you are welcome to the book launch at the Danish Architecture Center, 8 February 2012, 4-6 pm.
Amazing! Here we thought, that Gehl Architects experience in India was singular when it comes to the way in which people feel forced to walk in the streets rather than on the sidewalks and thus adding to a totally chaotic traffic situation. But follow David Byrne, wearing a helmet cam, on his bicycle trip around 42nd Street in New York City. And compare with our footage from Chennai in India: It is the same! People use the streets for walking rather than the sidewalks. Here it is not because of the poor condition of the sidewalk, but because of pedestrian congestion due to the bad match between the scale of the sidewalk and the amount of people passing along. And notice how this is a point that the good David Byrne is missing. He seems to blame the pedestrians for it and in this case comes out as a not-so-friendly cyclist.
But he is a friendly cyclist. And testimony to this is his brilliant 2009 book, Bicycle Diaries, where he tracks bicycle experiences from cities around the world. Recommendable, entertaining and engaging.
Urban life is in many ways a matter of rhythms, and the rhythms of human movement and perception have found a gifted interpreter in Gehl. Every city that has implemented his ideas has revived some of its livelier qualities, or discovered them anew.
Here is what US Politics writes about the new publication:
In a publication released today (24 June), visionary urbanist Jan Gehl and Walter Hook, Executive Director of the Institute of Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP), together set out ten keys to building successful cities. “Our Cities Ourselves: 10 Principles for Transport in Urban Life” shows how cities from New York to Nairobi can meet the challenges of rapid population growth and climate change while improving their competitiveness.
In a concise, vibrant and accessible format, the booklet promises to be a “must read” for all those involved in city design and urban planning, and forms the backbone of the ITDP exhibition “Our Cities Ourselves,” which opens on June 24 at New York’s Center for Architecture, before traveling to China,Brazil, Mexico and beyond.
“Cities of the twenty-first century should be lively cities, safe cities, sustainable cities and healthy cities,” says Jan Gehl. “All of these qualities can be achieved if we embrace these ten principles, which means putting people first.”
Cities face massive population growth, particularly in the developing world. By 2030, 60 percent of the world’s population, or 5 billion people, will live in cities. The transportation sector currently accounts for around a quarter of all greenhouse gas emissions, a growing proportion derived largely from cars and trucks.
From the exhibition Our Cities Ourselves, ITDP 25th anniversary, at the AIA in New York City (Photo: Samuel Lahoz for ITDP)
Without a significant move away from car-dependent suburbanization to pedestrian-friendly and public transit-oriented urban planning, cities will face growing difficulties financing the necessary infrastructure. As a result of inaction, preventing the two-degree rise in global warming that threatens cataclysmic climate change will be nearly impossible.
“When I was growing up, we used to think that in the future we would all be traveling around on monorails, or in flying cars. In cities with 25 million people, this sort of thing just isn’t workable,” saysWalter Hook, Executive Director of ITDP. “Now, our dreams are full of elegant pedestrian promenades along waterfronts alive with fountains and children playing, of great bike paths connecting to public squares alive with cafes, musicians, and performance art.”
Some cities are waking up to this reality, and changing direction. “Our Cities Ourselves: 10 Principles for Transport in Urban Life” showcases examples of cities reaping the benefits of integrating urban planning and design that gives priority to pedestrians and transit. It is designed as a guide to cities and countries wishing to make their cities more competitive and livable, while helping to solve the problem of climate change.
“We are thrilled to launch the ‘Our Cities Ourselves’ global program at the Center, but also to see this important booklet arrive. The principles outlined–and beautifully so–offer a promising future for New York and other growing cities,” says Rick Bell, FAIA, Executive Director of the Center for Architecture and the American Institute of Architects’ New York Chapter. “I think I speak for the architects of New York when I say we look forward to realizing these principles in our designs.”
What are the ten principles of sustainable transport?
Walk the walk: Create great pedestrian environments.
Powered by people: Create a great environment for bicycles and other non-motorized vehicles.
Get on the bus: Provide great, cost-effective public transport.
Cruise control: Provide access for clean passenger vehicles at safe speeds and in significantly reduced numbers.
Deliver the goods: Service the city in the cleanest and safest manner.
Mix it up: Mix people and activities, buildings and spaces.
Fill it in: Build dense, people and transit oriented urban districts that are desirable.
Get real: Preserve and enhance the local, natural, cultural, social and historical assets.
Connect the blocks: Make walking trips more direct, interesting and productive with small-size, permeable buildings and blocks.
Make it last: Build for the long term. Sustainable cities bridge generations. They are memorable, malleable, built from quality materials, and well maintained.
Sønder Boulevard, Copenhagen - prizewinner in 2008 European Prize for Urban Public Space
On Friday 11 June, the award-giving ceremony of the European Prize for Urban Public Space also featured the presentation of a catalogue that commemorates the ten years of the Prize.
It gathers together both theoretical issues, to be found in the in-depth articles in the opening pages that discuss the collective nature and political potential of public spaces, and practical cases with the illustration of the 29 winning projects. Each of them is presented with a text written by architects, urban planners, writers, sociologists and political representatives, bringing out, one by one, the common strands of the first decade of the Prize.
Lars Gemzøe, senior consultant and architect with Gehl Architects, is featured in the book with an article on the harbour baths in Copenhagen. And Tom Nielsen, senior consultant from Gehl Architects, was on the ‘Board of Experts’ for the award in 2010.
Harbour bath, Copenhagen - special mention in 2004 European Prize for Urban Public Space
The European Prize for Urban Public Space is an initiative of the Centre of Contemporary Culture of Barcelona (CCCB). It was established following the exhibition “The Reconquest of Europe”, which was held in the CCCB in 1999, in order to offer testimony to the process of rehabilitation of public spaces that has been occurring in many European cities.
The aim of the Prize is to recognise and foster the public character of urban spaces and their capacity for fostering social cohesion. While acknowledging the ambiguities inherent in the notion of public space, this Prize – the only one of its kind in Europe – is distinctive in both recognising and promoting a public space that is at once public (open and universally accessible) and urban. The Prize, in highlighting the relational and civic aspects of the typically urban space, thus differs from other initiatives that are focused on the figure of the architect, and from awards given for landscape-centred projects.
Other articles in the book ‘In favour of public space’ by Arnold Bartetzky, Oriol Bohigas, Ole Bouman, David Bravo, Peter Cachola Schmal, Judit Carrera, Zeljka Corak, Luis Francisco Esplá, Luis Fernández-Galiano, Kjartan Fløgstad, Beatrice Galilee, Luis García Montero, Lars Gemzøe, Huib Haye van der Werf, Andreas Huyssen, Hans Ibelings, Sarah Ichioka, José Miguel Iribas, Gabriele Kaiser, Dirk Laucke, Luca Molinari, Rafael Moneo, Joan Nogué, Shane OʼToole, Antoni Puigverd, Francis Rambert, Josep Ramoneda, Xavier Ribas, Marina Romero, Manuel de Solà-Morales, Dietmar Steiner, Elías Torres, Montserrat Tura, Philip Ursprung, Ana Vaz Milheiro, Adam Zagajewski.
