JAN GEHL, PROFESSOR, DR. LITT.

FOUNDING PARTNER: GEHL ARCHITECTS

URBAN QUALITY CONSULTANTS, COPENHAGEN

LIVEABLE CITIES –for the 21st Century

PEOPLE ORIENTED CITY PLANNING AS STRATEGY

”Life Between

Buildings”

1st edition 1971

Published in many

versions

21 languages

”New City

Spaces” - 2001

”Public Spaces

Public Life

- 1996

”New City Life” -

2006

4decades

of

research

Vietnam, 2008Bangladesh, 2008 Iran, 2010

Public Space as Meeting Place

Public Space as Market Place

Public Space as Connection Space

The traditional city......forever

The invaded city....from 1950s

All Cities have Traffic

Departments and perfect

statistics concerning traffic

and parking

*

The cars are very visible and

everpresent in the planning

proces

Do you know of any Citydepartment for

pedestrians and public life?

Hardly any City have statistics and data

concerning the people who use the city

*

The people in the City tends to be very

invisible and poorly represented in the

planning proces

The Carinvasion gets worser every day,

until someone puts their foot down and

decides to do something about it.

Bogota, Colombia - 6 mio. Inh.

The reconquered city...from 1980s

Reconquered

Cities:

A change of

Paradigme

WANTED:

- Lively City

- Attractive City

- Safe City

- Sustainable City

- Healthy City

Lively City

Attractive City

People Scale, Less Stress, Less Noise, Less Polution

+ a City dominated by Attraction Nr. 1: PEOPLE

Safe city

Sustainable City

”Houston -the City with the

fattest people of the World”

Healthy City

Willingnes to place

constraints to the vehicular

traffic

Reconqured Cities

Keywords

London – Congestion Charge 2003

Careful planning for

Walking and Public Life

Reconqured Cities

Keywords:

Copenhagen

From traffic place to people place

Strøget (main street)

pedestrianized 1962

Public Space-Public Life Surveys: Copenhagen 1968, 1985, 1995, 2005

Many more People are walking in the city

4 times more people

spend time in the city

In only 40 years the good season has been

extended from 2 to 10 months

Copenhagen Street: 2

Sidewalks, 2 proper bicycle

lanes, street trees, 2 lanes

for 2 way traffic, and a

substan- tial median to

facilitate crossing the

street

”We do not have to think

and act as 1960s traffic

engineers for ever -times

are changing and traffic

engineers are by now much

smarter”

Copenhagen: New Public Life Policy 2009:

”WORLDS FINEST CITY FOR PEOPLE”

Among the goals:”Everyone to walk 20% more by 2015!!!”

-on a citywide network of bicycle lanes

Bicycling in Copenhagen

Bicycles are taken

straight through the

street crossings and the

lanes are marked with

blue

Bicycle signals turns green

six seconds before the car

signals

A bicycle culture have step by step

been developed

Everybody bike

Cello- and bass players cycle

Oct 2011: New Danish Red - Gren Government arriving on

bicycles at the Palace to be commissioned by the Queen.

No Limousines no more?

Going to work in the City of Copenhagen

37% use bicycle

27% drive car

33% use public transit

5% walk

70% continue to bike in the winter

Official City Poster

September 2007

Copenhagen

The No 1 Bicycle

City in the World

Goals for 2015:

* 50% of all comuting

on bicycles

* Bicycle Accidents to

be halved”

Melbourne, - 3 mio. Inh.

The Age c.

1980

Places for People

1994

Places for People

2004

www.gehlarchitects.dk

Pedestrian traffic weekdays daytime: +40%

Pedestrian traffic evening: +100 %

Stationary activities +200-300%

MELBOURNE City Center 1994-2004

Retail

Residential

Office Vacancies

Employment

Bars and Pubs

Copenhagen Melbourne oct 07

A CITY GOOD AT PARTIES, OLYMPICS and SUMMITS….

….. BUT NOT SO GLORIOUS FOR THE EVERYDAY LIFE

Main Street in Sydney to be transformed

to Pedestrians, Bicycles and Light Rail

Present situation George St. After conversion

Vancouver , B.C. ,

Order of priority: Walking, Bicycling, Transit

and Deliveries. The Auto is last.

.

Washington DC. 2010: Cycling

down (in the middle of)

Pensylvania Ave

GREATER NEW YORKA GREENER,

9th Ave. Apr.08

9th Ave. Sep.08

Phot:DOT/NYC

Phot:DOT/NYC

Broadway Boulevard 23

May 2009

“When you can make it

there you can make it

anywhere,

New York, New York !!”

WELCOME TO THE 21st CENTURY

LIFE & ACTIVITY IS THE FINEST

ATTRACTION OF ALL

In the home the Children play were

the activity is

Outdoors children also prefer to play where other activities go on

Pedestrian routes

Access roads

20

weekday

40

60

80

100

weekdaysunday sunday

Children 0-6 Children 7-14

Park

Min

ute

s s

pen

t o

utd

oo

rs p

r.

Day

(averag

e)

Life: an everlasting source of learning

“Man is man’s greatest joy” (Old Icelandic saying)

Always a two-way contact: To watch and be watched

Life between buildings is so

important, it is never forgotten in architectual

drawings

We are talking about

life itself!

-everything worth

talking about happens

when you are on your

feet -that`s what we

were made for!

There is much more to walking -than walking!

A mode of transport - but with a potential for much more

-and the ”much more” is by far the more interesting part!

You can walk -and walk - and walk....

Slide 63

-but you could just as well ”walk`n-talk”

- or ”walk`n-watch” (and be watched!)

Slide 63

- or ”walk`n-wink”

-or you can ”stop`n watch”

If you can find a vacant bollard ! (Campo in Siena, Italy)

-or you can ”stop`n-talk”

-or you can ”walk`n-waltz`”

-or you can ”stop`n - watch`n - learn”

-and whenever you feel like

you can adress your fellow

citiziens

Transport dimension

Getting from A to B - simple, cheap, low noise

Social dimensionThe City as meetingplace

People watching

- the number one attraction in any city

People watching - the number 1,2,3...10

attraction in any city

Sustainability dimension

A good Public Realm is a crucial factor

for good Public Transportation

Health dimension

Democratic dimension

”Open Society” dimension

Danse his sort her

A heartfelt

welcome to a local

shopping center

(Australia)

Friendly, safe city dimension

The Economic dimension

AABOULEVARDEN - BEFORE THE REOPENING OF THE RIVER

AABOULEVARDEN - AFTER THE REOPENING OF THE RIVER

Sheer fun dimension ”a general human dimension”

.....Oh, what a wonderfull World!