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Jan Gehl

I, Jan Gehl (born 17 September 1936, Copenhagen) is a Danish architect and urban design consultant based in Copenhagen my career has focused on improving the quality of urban life by re-orienting city design towards the pedestrian and cyclist. I am a founding partner of Gehl Architects.

I received a Masters of Architecture from the School of Architecture at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts (KADK) in Copenhagen in 1960, and practiced architecture from 1960 to 1966. In 1966 I received a research grant from KADK to study " the form and use of public spaces"; My book Life between Buildings (1971) reports his studies of public life in public spaces, and develops my theories about how city planning, and architecture influence public life. I became a professor of urban planning at KADK, and a visiting professor around the world. I co-founded Gehl Architects in 2000 with Helle Søholt, held a Partner position until 2011, and remains a Senior Advisor.

As a "young architect working in the suburbs,“ I married a psychologist and "had many discussions about why the human side of architecture was not more carefully looked after by the architects, landscape architects, and planners... My wife and I set out to study the borderland between sociology, psychology, architecture, and planning."

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I first published the influential Life Between Buildings in Danish in 1971, with the first English translation published in 1987. I advocates a sensible, straightforward approach to improving urban form: systematically documenting urban spaces, making gradual incremental improvements, then documenting them again. In 2012 the book is translated into a film by the same name, exhibited in a 24 meters curved room at the "New Nordic Architecture" exhibition Louisiana Museum of Modern Art and later at the Venice Biennale for Architecture.

I as belonging to a school of urban design which we might call behavioral: one which derives its values, codes and methods from a study of how human beings live and behave.

Enabling people to meet in a sociable way is seen as the essential purpose of public urban space. I begin with a classification of outdoor human activity that provides the rationale for the rest of the book, and which has become one of the benchmarks of urban design theory, like Lynch’s legibility. I define ‘necessary activities, optional activities’, and ‘social or resultant activities. Necessary activities are those over which we have no choice. We go to work, we take the children to school, we visit the GP, and the quality of the environment has little influence over these actions.

Life between Buildings : How to Study Public Life

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On the other hand, optional activities are much more dependent upon having a conducive environment. We will sit outside the corner shop drinking coffee, or sit in the park reading the newspaper, only if these are pleasant places to be in. So, a well-designed area will generate more activity in its public spaces. Social activities can also be called resultant because they are the consequence of people being outdoors. They can be the result of necessary activities, but they are more likely to be the result of optional activities. At its most basic, social activity can be just watching other people: a passive act, but fundamental to urban life. Further up the scale, it can be exchanging news with a neighbor or the postman by the front gate, children playing in the street, or drinkers smoking and talking outside the pub.

Necessary Activities : Office going

Optional Activities : Sitting in park

Social Activities : Children Playing

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To avoid Carbon footprint

Make Public Life the Driver for Urban Design

In 2009, the City of Copenhagen enacted "A Metropolis for People", a plant inspired by a theory from Gehl Architects that allowed for the design of a vision and goals for urban life in the Danish capital in 2015.

Six years ago, public figures in Copenhagen set out to make it the most livable city in the world, ie. a sustainable city in which, through their public spaces, people are invited to have a unique and diverse life.

To move towards this goal, the plan was structured in three main components: walking more, spending more time in public spaces and getting out of “private cocoons” more. As Gehl explained during his stay in New York, this made the city more exciting, interesting and safer, as well as promoted social inclusion.

Cycle road in Copenhagen

Superkilen Park, Copenhagen

Use of Cycle road

According to me, the car is not a smart way of getting around, especially in cities that have populations of 10 million or more, like in South America, Africa, and Asia.

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To avoid Carbon footprint

In the latter region, I use Singapore as an example, by saying that it is a very small island, and as a result of the large number of cars there is almost no more free space on the streets, even when in a dense city it’s possible to get everywhere much faster either on foot or by bicycle.

I also argue that "it is no secret that the good days of the automobile are over."

Traffic in Singapore

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