News

VANCOUVER, BC - On Monday, January 24, at the Vancouver Playhouse Theatre, those lucky enough to get a seat had the pleasure of hearing Danish urban designer and architect, Jan Gehl, speak as part of the Arthur Erickson Lecture Series. Gehl gave the audience a taste of his work in planning and architecture, as well as an introduction to his latest book, Cities for People, which also considers the sociology and psychology of creating these aforementioned “cities for people.”

As the godfather of Copenhagen's bicycle network, Gehl has been in demand as a consultant to many other cities, most famously New York City, London, Melbourne and Sydney. His slow, incremental approach to to city planning for the public realm focuses primarily on the small-scale landscape, also called the "people-scale." This scale forces planners to come down to eye-level to see the results. Following Gehl’s process, city transformations start from experimental to permanent, as seen with his work in New York City.

The goal of NYC’s mayor, Michael Bloomberg, is to make NYC "the greatest, greenest city in the world." More and more space has slowly been taken away from cars, and now the city is on its way to implementing their 1,800-mile bike master plan. This example, along with many others, leans away from the Dubai-tower type of architecture, which Gehl blatantly calls “bird shit.” In Gehl’s opinion: no one is looking after the people. Cars, yes, people, no.

In architecture, instead of being obsessed with form and shape for its own sake, or how a city looks from an airplane, we should be obsessed with creating infrastructure for people. This includes public transportation and green mobility, such as widening sidewalks, and creating inviting and exciting spaces for all ages with public art.

In Copenhagen, people are invited to move, and they do move. Gehl states that 37 percent of the population uses a bike to travel to work. It is safe, healthy and cheap, and the majority of riders are actually women and people earning high incomes.

One of the major differences is that, in Copenhagen, cycling is not only practical, but it is also a lifestyle. Vancouver is on Gehl’s radar as a place that should continue to improve and expand its cycling and pedestrian facilities.

Gehl named 2010 the year in which there was a change in paradigm towards lively, attractive, safe, sustainable and healthy cities.

His arrival in Vancouver in 2011 also marks an important time in that city.

The Velo-City cycling planning conference will take place in Vancouver in 2012. In preparation, Vancouver city planners may want to consider Jan Gehl's recommendation to plan at the "people-scale" if it wants to maintain its place at the top of the list of the “world's most livable cities.”

As we see density increasing, and more pressure to be the greenest city in the world, how Vancouver can become a sensible, urban habitat is a question that will continue to be asked by us all.

Here is a link to a document called OUR CITIES OURSELVES:10 Transport Principles for Urban Life, which the Danish firm Gehl Architechts, of which Jan Gehl is a partner, helped create.