Inviting people to walk and bike in cities by developing quality streetscapes is a cornerstone of Jan Gehl’s philosophy for reinvigorating urban environments. This is Swanston Street, now with wide bluestone footpaths, trees and thoughtful street art.
Danish architect and “urban quality consultant” Jan Gehl has advised on ways to invigorate the urban life of – among other cities – Copenhagen, Stockholm, Amman, Sydney, Adelaide, Perth, Hobart, San Francisco, Seattle, London, New York City … and Melbourne.
In fact, Melbourne was one of the first cities to engage his services – way back in 1994. Long before London (in 2004) or New York City (in 2007-08).
On Monday 2 May at 6pm you have the opportunity to hear Jan Gehl speak at the Melbourne Town Hall about his new book – Cities for People – as well as his life-long experience of urban development, and “the increasing connections between physical form and human behaviour”.
With the City of Melbourne’s director of city design, Professor Rob Adams, as moderator a panel discussion will follow Jan Gehl’s talk. This is a free event, under the ‘Melbourne Conversations’ banner, and no bookings are required.
Jan Gehl’s philosophy and work is featured in an article in the The Wheeler – the latest issue (#03, March 2011).
Jan Gehl's latest book, Cities for People, which he will talk about at the Melbourne Town Hall on 2 May.
It was in the 1970s that Professor Gehl began to undertake systematic studies of urban life and public spaces, investigating the relationship between buildings, spaces and human behaviour in an effort to re-create cities for people. He has always credited his wife, psychologist Ingrid Gehl, with bringing to his attention the fact that the interaction between form and life is a precondition for a good, liveable city.
The foundation of all Professor Gehl’s recommendations to cities is that it is essential to re-orient cities towards the pedestrian and the bicyclist. He considers the bicycle simply a rapid form of foot traffic.
His methods and results are described in detail in Cities for People, which is his fifth book, published last year. The book is the culmination of more than 40 years of his work transforming urban environments and recreating cityscapes on a human scale.
Cities for People is virtually a handbook for transforming cities – but it is also extremely well-written and very readable. It is dense with information, or as Mikael Colville-Anderson writes: “Every page has a number of ‘Aha!’ moments. Such simple ideas that it boggles the mind that more cities are not doing them.”
One of my favourite moments in the book is a photograph of pedestrian lights in Australia with a caption saying: “ ‘Applying’ to cross the lights by pressing a button in Australia”; an adjacent photo on the page shows how things are done in Copenhagen – lights for pedestrians and bikes change regularly and automatically. It is all these subtle and not-so-subtle ways cities treat people – pedestrians and bicyclists – that Jan Gehl advises cities to improve and invite people to use their legs to get around.
All cities aim to be lively, safe, sustainable and healthy. “If we are sweet to pedestrians and make sure they can move about in dignity, and sweet to the bicyclists – to all people who want to use their own muscles to get around – we are actually addressing all 4 of these issues,” he says.
“If we are focused more on the people in the city we will have a better scale of city. We’ll also have less stress because we’ll move slower and we’ll have less noise and less pollution, and the city will be dominated by the most fascinating thing in our lives: other people.”
“Whenever we make good conditions for public life, for people to come together to meet their fellow citizens, they will come – if we provide the quality.”
The success of this strategy is clearly evident in central Melbourne today – but there is always more that can be done, as all us cyclists know.
