… 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.
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.
Alissa Walker, Contributing Editor, GOOD writes about professor Jan Gehls book:
“I met the amazing Jan Gehl at a conference this year and instantly developed a design crush. Gehl is a Danish architect who is best known for helping to transform the city of Copenhagen from a city for cars to, as he calls it, a city for people. Where so many urbanism books read like a prescriptive list of cold, hardscape improvements to public space, Gehl asks architects to focus not on the infrastructure itself, but on the people who will ultimately use it. Using language like asking architects to be “sweet” to pedestrians, and telling designers to “invite” bikers to ride on the streets, Gehl manages to deliver a witty, human, and altogether enjoyable take on urban design. The book is filled with photos of people using cities around the world, and in that sense it’s not just for designers—it will entertain, delight, and educate anyone with an interest in the future of where we choose to live.”
GOOD is the integrated media platform for people who want to live well and do good. It is a company and community for the people, businesses, and NGOs moving the world forward. GOOD’s mission is to provide content, experiences, and utilities to serve this community. GOOD currently produces a website, videos, live events, and a print magazine. Launched in September 2006, the company has garnered praise for its unique editorial perspective and fresh visual aesthetic and is quickly positioning itself as a significant new voice in our culture.
Other must-reads on the list include Patti Smiths recollection of new York life in the 1960s and 1970s, Just Kids, Rolling Stone guitarist extraordinaire Keith Richards memoirs, Life, and Tom rachmans The Imperfectionists.
“Behind Michael Bloomberg’s long-term plan for the city is a Danish professor and urban planner named Jan Gehl, who for several years has been quietly, if not slowly, guiding the remaking of New York. Gehl is a legend in his field. Events at the Center for Architecture in the West Village are always well-attended, but Wednesday night there were, among other signs of something remarkable, a line to get in the door that stretched halfway down the block, overflow seating on the first floor that would beam the lecture from the gallery two floors down, and reserved seating for the press, almost all of which was occupied.”
Read the rest of the Capital New York review of Jans talk in New York recently here.
Professor Jan Gehls new book, Cities for People, is published next week in the US. The Danish edition came out earlier this year along with the Chinese edition. And now the English language edition is ready for publication. Jan is in the US to celebrate the publication and will be speaking at several occassions.
On September 14 Island Press and The Summit Foundation host a reception for Jan Gehl in honour of the publication of the english version of Jans new book. The reception takes place at the Brookings Institution, Saul/Zilkha Rooms, 1775 Massachusetts Ave, NW, Washington DC.
On September 15 Jan will give a talk at the AIA New York. The talk takes place at 6PM, 536 LaGuardia Place. Introduction by Chair Amanda Burden, FAICP, Hon. AIA, NYC Department of City Planning and Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan, NYC Department of Transportation.
On September 16 Jan Gehl is lecturing at the Cooper-Hewitt Museum, 2 East 91st Street, New York at 6.30-8.00 PM.
New York DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan (left) and DOT Senior Policy Advisor Jon Orcutt (right) together with Jan Gehl in Copenhagen earlier this year.
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.
Cover of English edition of Jan Gehls 2010 book, Cities for People, published on Island Press.
Cities for People, the new book by Professor Jan Gehl, is published on May 20th at 15.00 at a public event at the Danish Architecture Centre.
In a global perspective the book summarizes more than 50 years of research, studies and projects dealing with urban life and the relation between cities and people. The fact that the book is published in Danish, English and Chinese simultaneously, which for any book on urban planning is an astounding fact, underlines the importance this book carries with it.
The publication of the English and the Chinese versions will be marked at events in the USA and China later in the summer and fall of 2010.
Among several to endorse the new book, Lord Richard Rogers has the following remarks:
No one has examined the morphology and use of public space to the extent that Jan Gehl has. Anyone who reads this book will get a valuable insight into his astonishingly perceptive understanding of the relationship between public spaces and civic society, and how the two are inextricably intertwined.
In Denmark the book is published by Bogværket whereas the English version is published by Island Press.
