Professor  Jan Gehl 

 Partner GEHL Architects- Urban Quality

Title of presentation :Cities for People
 

An important change of paradigm occurred around 1960.. City planning took off towards planning in a really huge scale in response to the challenge of fast growing cities. At the same point in time traffic planning took over the planning at eye level to address the rapid influx of cars. In this commotion the care for the people using cities –looked after for centuries by tradition and experience- was completely left behind.  Already in 1961 Jane Jacobs raised her voice warning about t his new sit uat ion in  “The death and lif e of  g r eat  Am erican cit ies” But  not  m uch happened f or  3-4 decades. Cities for People became an overlooked and forgotten dimension. T his is t he st or y t old by Jan G ehl in his new book  “ Cit ies f or  People” which g oes on to descr ibe why look ing  af t er  people is crucial for the quality of cities in the 21 century, how it can be ackomplished and how it is actually done by now in more and more projects and cities. The transformations carried out in Copenhagen, Melbourne, Sydney and –most recently- in New York will serve as examples of this new people oriented direction in planning.  A new change of paradigm is at hands where Cities for People –after decades of neglect- are once again elevated to be a main feature in architecture, urban design and city planning.  The new book Cities for People by Jan Gehl (Island Press 2010) will serve as point of departure for the presentation.