Jan Gehl

Jan Gehl born 17 September 1936 Copenhagen is a Danish architect and urban design consultant based in Copenhagen whose career has focused on improving the quality of urban life by reorienting city design towards the pedestrian and cyclist He is a founding partner of Gehl Architects Gehl 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 he received a research grant from KADK to study the form and use of public spaces his book Life between Buildings 1971 reports his studies of public life in public spaces and develops his theories about how city planning and architecture influence public life He became a professor of urban planning at KADK and a visiting professor around the world He cofounded 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 Gehl 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 Gehl first published his influential Life Between Buildings in Danish in 1971 with the first English translation published in 1987 Gehl 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 Gehls book Public Spaces Public Life describes how such incremental improvements have transformed Copenhagen from a cardominated city to a pedestrianoriented city over 40 years Copenhagens Strøget carfree zone one of the longest pedestrian shopping areas in Europe is primarily the result of Gehls work Gehl participates in and advises many urban design and public projects around the world In 2004 he carried out an important study in to the quality of the public realm in London commissioned by Central London Partnership and Transport for London and supported City of Wakefield and the town of Castleford in developing and delivering better public spaces as part of an initiative known as The Castleford Project In 200708 he was hired by New York Citys Department of Transportation to reimagine New York City streets by introducing designs to improve life for pedestrians and cyclists The DOT used Gehls work to directly inform the implementation of their new urban planning and design policies and projects Gehl has been influential in Australia and New Zealand as well where he prepared Public Life studies for the city centres of Melbourne 1994 and 2004 Perth 1995 and 2009 Adelaide 2002 Sydney 2007 Auckland 2008 Wellington 2004 Christchurch Launceston and Hobart 2010 Source Article Jan Gehl from Wikipedia in English licensed under CCBYSA 30