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Positive thinking towards the cities of 2050

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May 22, 2012
Open data, Research, Uncategorized
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What does a high tech, networked city look like? Credit; James Silver, Wired Magazine

Predicting the future of cities is somewhat of a misnomer  - if  a very enjoyable one. However redundant an exercise of itself it mostly is (posterity tells us how wrong it can be), as part of an ongoing process of imagineering our actual futures –  as a conversation, it is crucial.  In a time of rapid global urbanization, thinking and planning for the future of city life is vital if we are to sustain population growth whilst ensuring quality of life improvements across the globe.  The Future City Lab, is an open-source initiative for accruing ideas of our future urban environments by a means of crowdsourcing positive utopian ideas for 2050.   In a conversation with Martin Haas, partner of Stuttgart based Haas Cook Zemmrich and co-founder of Future City Lab, Jeff Risom Head of Gehl Institute, answers provocative musings about the role of technology in the city and how radically different – or similar – city life  in 2050 might be…..

1. Haas – In the age of ubiquitous and mobile computer technology, the longing for the “real” and the “tangible” will become a counter-pole that also shapes society. How will that influence cities?

Risom - From the telegraph to the telephone to Twitter, statistical evidence indicates that the creation of new communication technology has always increased the demand and frequency of physical meeting. Otherwise why would the computer industry’s innovators, with the means to connecting collaborators from afar, all choose to locate in an area with some of the most expensive real estate in the world: Silicon Valley.  Yet Silicon Valley as it exists today is the manifestation of 20th century paradigm based on the proximity to a leading university and the concentration of the best and the brightest working in elaborate and expensive, but often isolated corporate office parks. It is cities, with their diversity, opportunity for chance encounters, proximity to customers and related industries that provide the fertile ground for cultivating the ideas that will shape the future.

People still choose to engage in private use of media out in public space

Alone-together. With opportunities for planned or spontaneous meetings, Broadway, New York

2. Haas – In the near future most commodities and services will be available through networking and digital means. Is that the end of shopping malls and retail stores?

Risom - The virtual cannot be conceived as a replacement for “bricks and mortar”, but rather an extra layer that enhances the physical. This added layer of the virtual (which has the potential to lead to more urban density and complexity) only increases the need for thoughtfully designed streets and public spaces. While the potential for technology is huge, we must be careful to not to confuse a city – which is really defined by the people and their interconnected daily lives with its infrastructure, buildings, or technology. Therefore shopping malls and retail stores (or some form of market spaces) will always exist, perhaps not for consumption, but certainly as places for people to meet and interact.

Retail Mall, Pearl St, Boulder

3rd Avenue Promenade LA. Places for cultural exchange and recreation/ play as well as shopping

3. Haas – A responsive mobility network will be created. It will respond to the demands of each individual but will at the same time be linked to a ‘collective mobility’. There will no longer be a need to separate private and public traffic. How does this influence the quality of streets?

Risom - I believe that notions of public and private are fundamental to human co-existence and ownership is a very powerful right.  So rather than the blurring of public and private, I foresee a form of mobility based on “The Sharing Economy”. This concept of more effectively sharing commodities like private vehicles (the average car is used only 10% of its lifetime and during rush hour in a typical high-income city, only 25% of all private vehicles are in use) will allow us to consume less, more effectively use existing capacity of systems and resources, and provide more freedom of choice in mobility options.  This will allow us to build denser along existing streets and transit corridors, meaning street space will become more vibrant but also more contested.  In a typical city, streets comprise 20% of all urban space and up to 80% of public open space.  In the future, the incredible resource and potential that streets provide will be better utilized.

Flexible parking space for cars and bikes depending on the time of day, Copenhagen

Using open data to plan NYC bike share system

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May 21, 2012
Cities, Cycling, Mobility, Open data, Public Realm
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Welcome back to Gehl Institute’s partnership with Untapped Cities in New York, looking at the impact of data, both open and collected, in the design of cities.

On March 7, New York City became the first local government to pass legislation ensuring public access to data. The passing of the bill symbolizes a political embrace of the “open” culture already underway in New York City’s “Silicon Alley.”  City agencies and non-profit organizations in New York are making new correlations between urban conditions and social phenomenon, utilizing crowdsourcing and open data, to support traditional methods of data analysis.

Open Plans, a New York-based non-profit organization with a focus on transportation and urban planning, is an example of such a progressive group. The Open Plans team builds software which enables public agencies and non-profit organizations to crowdsource input from the community. You may recognize their work with New York City’s Department of Transportation’s interactive bike station suggestion map from this past year. In its decade of existence, Open Plans developed open source projects which include OpenGeo, Streetfilms, Streetsblog, GothamSchools, Civic Commons and OpenTripPlanner. According to the non-profit, all the tools serve to facilitate open source software, information transparency and progressive transportation planning.

Recently, Open Plans co-hosted a panel at the American Planning Association (APA) Conference in Los Angeles with Denver-based firm Place Matters, highlighting the challenges to come as we navigate amidst a constant and sometimes overwhelming flow of data. Important questions loom: How do we make sense of the data? With limited resources, should companies focus on making the quality of data better or the analysis tools better?

Publicly submitted requests for bike share stations in NYC

In partnership with Open Plans, the NYC Department of Transportation (NYCDOT) has also embraced this trend towards a more “open” culture by utilizing crowd-sourced information to plan station locations for the soon-to-be-launched Citibank bike share program. Bicycle commuting has increased in the city (35% from 2007 to 2008), but there are still significant challenges associated with bike ridership, including access. The collected crowd-sourced data, submitted via an interactive map on the NYCDOT website, allowed the public to suggest bike share stations for the rollout.

To read the full article visit Untapped Cities

What gets measured gets done

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May 16, 2012
Public Realm, Research
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Excited conversations around Open City Data in our office have kept returning to the past – to our own experiences and stories that have framed our understanding of data in cities more broadly over the last 12 years in practice (and 40 years of Jan Gehl’s research). Here we will share some of our thoughts based on these experiences. Our practice’s foundational values are grounded in understanding the human experience of the city, and this sensibility extends to how we approach technological changes that affect it. Open data for us and the increased salience of transparency it evokes should be understood as social change, not simply technological development. There has been a cultural and political shift in will that has created a climate for the emergence of a collaborative spirit. Innovation through mining latent values is – it could be asserted – the spirit of our time in an age of scarcity.

Smart cities, smart phones and censors will create a flood of data and measurements, however it is still what we choose to do with this data, how we apply it, how we process it and of what quality it is that will influence decision makers and create a shift in the city – not the quantity or digital nature of it.

‘Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted’                -  Albert Einstein

All over the world there is a shift by governments and organisations to try to capture alternative measures presenting a more even spread of values and interests that can be drawn on by decision makers.  From National Gross Happiness to measures of well-being, these attempt to capture changing societal values as they move away from the material towards quality of life concerns. This presents a significant challenge for statisticians but is necessary if we are to strive for socially and environmentally minded governance and escape the data ‘cage’ in which the economics of the twentieth century has left us. To continue to base decision making solely on that which is most easily measurable undermines the possibility for achieving the changes which our age demands. For instance, we believe environmental challenges require a more diverse set of responses than those offered by the currently myopically focused approach.

Open city data could offer the backbone to a new ecosystem of shared data, captured for different reasons and to alternate ends. It could sound the death knell for cities’ over-reliance on static sources of data, and provide the platform for much-needed change.

With permission of the Charles Booth Archive at the Library of the London School of Economics http://booth.lse.ac.uk/

Seeing is believing

In 1889 in London the philanthropist and social researcher Charles Booth, frustrated by the lack of data on the city’s changing demography and in particular on the city’s poor, set out to complete an extensive study of the people and places of the industrial city. Claimed to be a more lively and accurate portrait of London than even Dickens’ novels, his mixture of ethnographic, observational and spatial data filled many volumes and was expressed as a colour-coded, beautifully intricate map. This displayed the inequalities that went to form the ubiquitous paradox of the urban industrial society: ‘poverty in a land of plenty’.

Booth’s social survey caused a significant discursive shift – it served to dispel the myth that poverty was the punishment for idleness and immorality; that poverty was due to the failings of the poor themselves rather than society or the poor conditions of the city itself. Booth produced data which showed that 30% of the population lived in poverty caused by low pay, old age, sickness disability and unemployment – and that unemployment was in fact a spatial issue. This led to the urban malaise being treated as a spatial problem as well as an individual one. Areas of low-employment needed targeted injections of jobs, and so began the place based nature of urban regeneration and policy. The work proved to be revolutionary in the scientific spatial representation of society – social cartography or mapping began to interrogate the correlations between urban conditions and social phenomena. Journalistic accounts at the time reported poverty, and the places in which it was endemic – Dickens’ serialised and widely distributed novels dramatized the issues -  but picturesque narrations do little for the legislator. Social-scientific presentations, on the other hand, were more adept at forcing institutional responses. City managers ‘manage what they can measure’. This was – and still is – the bureaucrat’s remit, and this data gave the visibility necessary to spur change.  Booth and Rowntree (who conducted a social study of poverty in York) are cited in the reform of the poor law and their data is said to have inspired the Liberal government of 1906 to embark on their extensive welfare reform programme. The programme explicitly targeted children, the sick, the elderly and the un-employed  and is the basis of the modern-day welfare system.

Have we been measuring the right things?

Booth was a game changer, revolutionising the way in which data was used to feed into social policy.  Does ubiqutous data generated by mobile devices, data sensors and apps only promote a form of surveillance that can infringe on freedom of expression? Or can we use these feedback loops to ensure the city’s structures and systems can better adapt to the rapid change of the culture and lifestyle of urban living? It has been said that we will experience 100 years of social change over the next decade. Perhaps the emergence of open data as a new basis for urban decision making will respond to the uniqueness of our time in the way that Booth’s map did, with equally radical results. After all, that is precisely what we need.

Bloggers are Simon Goddard, Claire Mookerjee, Jo Posselt and Jeff Risom

Leader in Innovation and Design – Jeff Risom

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April 20, 2012
News
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Jeff Risom

Here at Gehl we’re very excited that Jeff, our head of Institute within the office has been recognised as a rising talent in the Berlingske Business talent 100 Denmark 2012. Of course we have known he is a rising star for a long time, but it’s wonderful that others are also excited by his talent. Modest by nature and with little information about Jeff’s work specifically out there (pointed out yesterday by Rasmus Brønnum) click here for english we wanted to mark the occasion with a very quick look at some of Jeff’s recent work.

Jeff has been a key innovator on many projects here in the office; advising the NYC Department Of Transport  on the Broadway project; visioning the future with Our Cities Ourselves and working on Market Street in San Francisco. A prolific speaker so far this year he has managed to squeeze in speaking at the Nordic Green buildings conference in Oslo and presented a provocative look at the processes of awarding environmental standards and green building credentials.  It encouraged all of us to go beyond ambitions of neutrality towards regenerative design. In March Jeff presented a paper in Dehli about integrating mobility and public life and the kind of urbanism that this requires. He brought lessons learned from New York to a study of Chennai, India and the paper will be published later in the year. Jeff is a guest lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania, The Royal Academy of Fine Art in Copenhagen, and the Danish Institute for Study Abroad and is a Guest Practitioner in the Cities Programme at the London School of Economics.

As a positive thinker and innovator Jeff is always pushing forward people-first design principles across fields that deal with the subject of the city, changing minds and inspiring change. Congratulations on this recognition from your colleagues at Gehl!

Study trip in Europe with Chongqing Planning Institute and Energy Foundation

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November 10, 2010
Cities, News
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In cold Zürich, from left: Daniel Sauter, Yu Jun, Ola Gustafsson, Jiang Yang, Zhang Meining, Mei Wang, Zhou Yuxiao.

As part of the workshop Gehl Architects has held during the last week regarding Gehl Architects ongoing  project in Chongqing, China, Ola Gustafsson from Gehl Architects joined the team of urban planners from Chongqing Planning Institute and Energy Foundation on a studytrip in Europe. The team, travelling by train, has been looking at best practice examples of European urban planning related to the ongoing project in Chongqing.

In Gehl Architects, Copenhagen, office during workshop - from left: Kristian Skovbakke Villadsen, Mary Fialko, Camilla van Deurs, Mei Wang, Jeff Risom, Zhang Meining, Zhou Yuxiao, Jan Gehl, Jiang Yang, Ola Gustafsson and Yu Jun.

First stop was Hamburg, where dipl. ing. Uwe Carstensen guided the group through the harbourfront development of HafenCity. Strong management and quality control from the city has ensured a mixed use, lively extension of the city centre. Other details relevant to the city of Chongqing was the different ways the public realm connects to the water and intelligent  flood preventing measures.

In Freiburg the group looked at the extensive public transport network, and they way it connects both to pedestrian areas in the city centre as well as new developments in the outskirts of the city. The new development of Vauban is an example of a sustainable new neighborhood, where a strong influence by the inhabitants over planning have created a dense, mixed use area with a varied, small scale building structure and good edge zones between public and private areas. The inner city is one of the most attractive in Europe, with streets reserved for pedestrians, public transport and bicyclists. Small streams line the streets, giving a unique identity to the street space as well as defining the different uses of the streets and providing a playful element for children and grown-ups alike.

In Freiburg

In Zürich, the group was given a tour by Mr. Daniel Sauter, a sociologist working both for the city, the region, nationally and internationally with issues regarding walking in cities. Mr. Sauter showed how the city has worked with integrating public transport and pedestrian networks, especially in terms of information and building a culture around the soft transport modes. Places of interest included the removal of cars from Limmatquai, (with a 100% increase in stationary activities as a result), the funiculars connecting to the higher parts of the city, and the careful restoration of the public spaces of the inner city.

In Lausanne, focus was on how a bicycle culture can be developed in a city with a very steep topography (500 meters of height difference). Details included bike lanes sensitive to the inclination, contraflow bike lanes in one-way streets to avoid inclined detours, elevators in the city centre to connect different levels and the metro connecting the different levels of the city.

Mei Wang, Zhou Yuxiao and Zhang Meining with Jan Gehl and books.

The last destinations of the journey, Lyon and Paris, will be done without Gehl Architects, but with an extensive program including the riverfront regeneration in Lyon, bike share programs, a series of new mixed use developments and different public space projects in both cities.

Gehl in Barcelona

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October 21, 2010
Cities, News
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Jeff Risom represented Gehl Architects at the Intiating Projects Conference an International Symposium of Young Architecture in Barcelona, Spain last week.

Jeff participated as a panel contributor on the topic of Making City as part of the 3 day symposium organized by AJAC (Agrupació de Joves Arquitectes de Catalunya), Collegi d’Arquitectes de Catalunya and Wonderland in an effort to establish a critical approach towards architectural practice for the young architects association and also to establish synergies on an international level that define the cultural identity of the profession.

In addition to Gehl Architects, Maria Sisternas compiled an international panel of young professionals including Omer Cavusoglu from Urban Age and LSE Cities in London, Fernando Rodriguez, p artner of FRPO Architecture and Cynthia Echave from the Urban Ecology Agency of Barcelona. The purpose of the debate was to disseminate knowledge and discuss current strategies employed by the diverse range of organizations represented on the panel in terms of urban policy issues, mobility strategies, sustainable projects. The multi-disciplinary panel discussed the need of a holistic approach to city making in which the role of architects in collaboration with other disciplines differs in some ways from the long-standing tradition of architectural practice throughout Spain.  The discussion aimed to show a professional path for architects, not as managers of site work but as producers of informed ideas about the city, working in multidisciplinary teams. The debate had a more practical view, focusing more on professional and ideological issues of livability and sustainability in the 21st Century, rather than a simple description of projects undertaken by the organizations represented.

Omer Cavusoglu, Maria Sisternas, Jeff Risom and Cynthia Echave

 

Maria Sisternas compiled an international panel of young professionals including Ömer Çavuşoğlu from Urban Age, Fernando Rodríguez partner of FRPO Architecture and Cynthia Echave from the Urban Ecology Agency of Barcelona. The purpose of the debate is to disseminate the work, the way to get customers, difficulties, career opportunities and strategy of the companies or organizations engaged in research or as consultants of cities in urban policy issues, mobility strategies or sustainable projects. That is, the discussion aims to show professional path for architects, not as managers of site work but as producers of informed ideas about the city, working in multidisciplinary teams. The debate will have a practical view, focusing more on professional issues and recommendations than in explaining the projects’ of organizations invited.

How can we take this forward?

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August 23, 2010
Cities, Cycling, Mobility, Presentations, Public Realm
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Street scene, Chennai

The spirit of ’Let’s do it’ emanates from all the decisionmakers, Jeff Risom and I have met and made presentations to during our 10 day long trip to India.

Beforehand I had been told by my good Indian friend, architect Sanjay Prakash, that Indian city and government officials were hard to impress. And certainly Mr. Asheesh Sharma, the municipal commissioner (IAS) of the Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation, Maharashtra,  seemed less than impressed during my whole presentation on 21st century housing based on the best practice case of Bo01 in Malmö. And yet, his first reaction afterwards were the words: “How can we take this forward?”

Left to right: Henning Thomsen, Gehl Architects, mayor of Chennai M. Subramanian, Jeff Risom, Gehl Architects, and Rajesh Lakhoni, Chennai City Corporation Commissioner

Jeff and I receiving gifts from Chennai mayor Subramanian

The same happened in Chennai (former Madras) some days earlier. Initiated with the playing of the Tamil Nadu state anthem, Jeff and I gave a presentation on Copenhagen cycling best practice to the mayor of this 8 million people city, Mr. M. Subramanian, the City Corporation Commissioner, Mr. Rajesh Lakhoni, and a host of city councillors. After our presentation the very lively and empathic mayor gave a talk (in tamil) about his reflections on cycling in Chennai and referring to his own trips to Europe, where he had had the opportunity first hand to witness the potential of cycling in cities, he boldly stated, that Chennai would have its first dedicated cycle tracks in nothing less than 20 days.

Audience at the Gehl Architects lecture at Anna University, School of Architecture and Planning, which included professor Dinesh Mohan from the Indian Institute of Technology in Delhi as well as professor and dean of the Department of Architecture, Anna University, Dr. Suresh Kuppuswamy.

Check out some of the news clips on Gehl Architects visit to Chennai:

The Hindu

New India Press

The Times of India

ITDP India staff working in their office in Pimpri

Gehl Architects are visiting India on request of the Institute for Transport and Development Policy (ITDP). In the case of Chennai also Chennai City Connect, a Chennai based non-profit organization, have been responsible for the invitation and for the many presentations and meetings, we have been part of while in Chennai.

See below a list of the activities we have been performing since entering India on the 17th august:

17th august: Meeting with professor Dinesh Mohan and M. Muthaia on Chennai history and urban development in India

17th august: Lecture at Anna University, School of Architecture and Planning

18th august: Presentation to the Tamil Nadu Urban Development Foundation (TNUDF)

19th august: Presentation to the Chennai Metro Rail Limited

20th august: Lecture for the Mayor M. Subramanian, the City Corporation Commissioner, Mr. Rajesh Lakhoni, and city councillors

20th august: Presentation to the Chief Secretary, Tamil Nadu State, Mr. K. Sripathy

20th august: Lecture for Executive Committee members of Chennai City Connect and Marg representatives at the Sheraton, sponsored by Marg Limited

21st august: Workshop with Tamil Nadu Urban Development Foundation (TNUDF) and Jones Lang LaSalle on pedestrianisation of T. Nagar

23rd august: Presentation to the Chief Commissioner Asheesh Sharma, of the Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC), Maharashtra and the CEO Suhas Diwase, Pimpri Chinchwad New Town Development Authority (PCNTDA) and other city officials

23rd august: Lecture to ITDP staff at local office in Pimpri

24th august: Two presentations at seminar with delegates from Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC), Pimpri Chinchwad New Town Development Authority (PCNTDA), builders, architects and planners

Street in the main shopping area of Chennai, T. Nagar, after rainfall.

The reception of the thoughts and practices we have shown in all of these lectures and presentations has been very welcoming. The notion of people-friendly development and the need for the introduction of new planning principles to succeed the traditional modernistic planning principles is warmly welcomed by the Indians.

At the same time we on our side have to acknowledge that the urban context, societal circumstances and even the economic structures are indeed very different from the context, circumstances and structures, we rely on when dealing with cities in both Denmark, Europe and most anywhere else. India seems to be a case of its own.

Street scene, Chennai

The little we have seen granted, we still are left with an impression of a country and of cities where growth is staggering, be it in numbers of people, numbers of vehicles and even kind and type of vehicles, and be it in pressure on the land and on its ressources, and on the structures that try to keep this extraordinary country together.

Slum settlements in front of new housing development in Pimpri

Even understanding the importance and scale of the so-called informal economy is mindblowing to a person coming from the US, as Jeff, and from Denmark, as myself. Poverty, as we have witnessed in slum developments in both Chennai and Pimpri, is evident. The relation of the informal economy and the informal settlements to the larger urban context is, to say the least, complicated. That the lifestyles of some, cannot be maintained without the help of cheap labour supplied by the others, the slumdwellers, is openly accepted. But it is also evidently hard to deal with for planners as well as politicians and city officials when redeveloping existing cities or even planning and building new cities and towns.

Informal economy - street vendors in the main shopping area in Chennai, T. Nagar

Informal economy - hawkers to the left and shops to the right co-existing and both relying on the business that the other brings to a section of the sidewalk

During our visit we have been discussing pedestrianization, improving conditions for cyclists and implementation of better cycling infrastructure as well as raising awareness on cycling as a healthy, sustainable and effective mobility form, and also how to develop people-friendly housing developments for the 21st century.

New urban development around a BRT streetcorridor in Pimpri - these streetcorridors will be between 45 and 75 meters wide!

Recycling garbage forms an integrated part of the informal economy and of the slum settlements

And also during our visit we have been exposed to many issues that seem to be particular for the growing megacities of the developing world, issues that call for their own context-based solutions to be developed and where the example of Copenhagen as a livable city, sometimes falls short of the realities that people are dealing with in a society such as the Indian. Thus even if we think we still have a point in pushing the issue of a more people-friendly planning in a context such as India, we must also make it a point to learn more about the megacity context in order to find ways in which the principles of people-friendly planning become more applicable in for example an Indian context.

Traffic - It is all over the place!!!

That said, I must say that the visit in general and the people in particular have been an extraordinary experience. The entrepreneurial, warm-hearted and extremely humoristic Indians have been a joy to get to know.

A special thanks for organizing the whole trip and for taking such good care of us goes to Shreya Gadepalli and the staff of ITDP India, that we have met, as well as to Raj Cherubal and Balchand Parayath of Chennai City Connect.

Children in the streets of a low-income housing development in Pimpri

Not only the food was hot!

We were kept busy! Jeff adjusting slideshows in the cab between presentations

Riding in auto rickshaws in Chennai, India

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August 19, 2010
Cities, Mobility, Public Realm
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Our ride to todays presentation for the Chennai Metro Authority - four of us were on board along with the driver!

On our trip to Chennai for Gehl Architects, Jeff Risom and myself, are trying out various forms of transportation. Today we got to go both in bus as well as in auto rickshaw. Joining us on these trips were Shreya Gadepalli, senior program director for ITDP India, and Chris Kost, technical director, ITDP India.

All forms of transportation through the streets of Chennai are an adventure. The traffic of Chennai, which at first seems to be utter chaos has a deep-felt and respectful structure to it along with the fact that speeds, due to the many different modes of transportation that share the road, is not excessively high. Accidents of course occur, but the adventure of riding the waves of Chennai traffic up until now have been if not a pleasant experience then at least a learning experience of a positive kind.

Check out this film that gives you a little flavour of what driving in auto rickshaws in Chennai, India, is like.

Gehl Architects in India

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August 13, 2010
Cities
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For the first time Gehl Architects are venturing into India, the worlds second most populated country (soon to be the worlds most populated country) with now already more than 1 billion people. Monday 16th August, Jeff Risom and myself, are travelling to Chennai (former Madras) on the east coast of southern India and later on in the week, we move on to Pune, a couple of hours inland from Mumbai.

Gehl Architects have signed up to assist ITDP (Institute for Transportation & Development Policy) in some of their work in India. This work is part of a larger collaboration between Gehl Architects and ITDP, that also involves contributions in China, Brazil and Mexico. Recently Gehl Architects also contributed to the ITDP exhibition in New York in connection with the celebration of ITDP’s 25th anniversairy. Check out more about this and the booklet, Our Cities Ourselves, that was created in collaboration between ITDP and Gehl Architects here.

Founded in 1985, ITDP has become a leading organization in the promotion of environmentally sustainable and equitable transportation policies and projects worldwide. ITDP was created by sustainable transport advocates in the U.S. to counteract the export to developing countries of costly and environmentally damaging models of dependence on the private automobile.

In its first ten years, ITDP successfully advocated for the redirection of lending activity by the World Bank and other multi-lateral institutions away from an exclusive focus on road projects and toward more multi-modal transport solutions. In more recent years, we have focused on working with municipalities and non-governmental organizations in developing countries to implement projects that show how air pollution, carbon emissions, traffic congestion and accidents can be reduced, or how the basic mobility of the poor can be improved.

Jeff and I are hoping to keep you posted on the trip and our experiences on this blog, so look forward to more blogposts on Gehl going India.

Top image by India 8, originally uploaded by ojsmadgett.

A critical look at the compact city model

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August 11, 2010
Research
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In the UK, the ‘compact city’ model for urban development has heavily influenced Urban Renaissance planning policy of the last ten years. This  ideal has been greatly simplified and selectively implemented throughout London.

In their paper for the recent 2nd Annual International Conference on Sustainable Architecture and Urban Development, hosted by The Center for the Study of Architecture in the Arab Region and held in Amman, Jordan, Jeff Risom, of Gehl Architects, Copenhagen, and Maria Sisternas, of MedCities, Barcelona, examines the guiding framework for this form of ‘compact city’ policy and offers a critique of some of the approaches to ’compact cities’, that have been put forward in recent years, and in some cases put forward without much critical distance.

In a follow up interview with Risom and Sisternas, by the German infoportal for sustainable business and policy, Nachhaltigkeit.org, the two authors underline that it is not the fundamental idea of a more compact city, that they criticize, but rather what seems to be an unholy alliance between urbanist, promoting densification, and developers aiming to make a buck on the individual site and failing to respect the larger urban needs and challenges of an area. This alliance, it seems, can lead to catastrophic results that eventually make neighborhoods less livable (and sustainable), rather than more livable (and sustainable), in spite of heavy investments in an area.

Some Urban Renaissance policies are reminiscent of the Garden City model put forth 100 years earlier. Jeff Risom and Maria Sisternas paper and presentation in Amman investigates these “sustainable” policies as they manifest themselves specifically through a proposal for a tall building in the Garden City suburb of Ealing.

"The key components of a mixed-use and integrated urban neighborhood", according to Lord Rogers of Riverside - illustration by Andrew Wright Associates

The analysis leads to a critique of regional policy used to designate the scope and scale of development at the local level as it fails to identify key socio-economic and spatial characteristics that contribute to the phenomenology of each specific location.  This failure stems from an ideology that is largely rooted in convenient but overly simplified notions of what constitutes ‘urban’ and ‘suburban’ areas.

The paper concludes with two bundles of policy and urban design interventions that address the flawed relationship between the regional and the local, identifying new evaluation criteria, while maintaining the strengths of  current policy’s main goals and aspirations.

Speaking about the 2nd Annual International Conference on Sustainable Architecture and Urban Development, Jeff Risom said that,

“In many ways the conference expanded the traditional sustainability debate to include issues of public/private space in predominately muslim portions of North Africa (Sudan and Libya), environmentally sustainable housing in Turkey, and the economic, social, and environmental impact on the sprawling refugee neighborhoods in Amman.  This exposure was both a breath of fresh air and at the same time disheartening as it emphasized that several of the issues we tackle in high-income western cities simply aren’t relevant to a vast percentage of the world’s population.  In addition to papers regarding technical design solutions to improve mobility and reduce energy consumption of individual buildings and city districts, conference presentations highlighted fundamental obstacles such as illiteracy, poor access to information, lack of democratic transparency and an abundance of corruption that must be addressed in conjunction with good design to achieve truly sustainable development.  This notion of removing such obstacles to achieving quality of life as well as designing contextually sensitive interventions will only become increasingly important as we do more work in lower-income countries and in non-western cultures.”

Read the full interview with Jeff Risom and Maria Sisternas in Nachhaltigkeit.org here (in German only).

Check out Risom and Sisternas presentation for the 2nd Annual International Conference on Sustainable Architecture and Urban Development, held in Amman, Jordan, here:

Jeff Risom is MSc of City Design and Social Science, LSE, and is an associate at Gehl Architects in Copenhagen.

Maria Sisternas is MSc of City Design and Social Science, LSE, and works as Urban Development Project Manager at MedCities, Barcelona, a collaboration of Mediterranean cities formed in 1991.

Senior Consultant and Culture & Communications Manager Henning Thomsen from Gehl Architects was on the Scientific Committee for the conference.

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