In Search of the Human Scale | Jan Gehl | TEDxKEA

For the past 50 years, urban planners have gone out of their way to build grandiose cities, with large open spaces to accommodate traffic and awe-inspiring views to impress the inhabitants.

Inadvertently, these cities that look inspiring from the window of an airplane or a car, offer very little to the pedestrian. Public spaces become uninviting and uninspiring, discouraging people from physical activities or from merely enjoying their surroundings.

With obesity and other lifestyle-associated problems on the rise, it is more important than ever to build cities for people. Cities that move at 5km/h.

Dubbed “the last living worldwide renowned guru in urbanism” legendary architect Jan Gehl has been rebuilding cities to accommodate the needs of modern societies throughout half a century. He has been involved in rebuilding most large cities imaginable, from Sao Paolo to New York, to Copenhagen, to Moscow, to Singapore.

[sbjctvdesign]

This is making me change the way I think about designing buildings as well. Gotta stop looking at them from above

[DarkKittycat]

i love this man and everything he researched

[francoreque]

1:00 BIOGRAFIA
5:10 ESCALA HUMANA
7:58 GOING MODERN
8:43 SITE PLAN SCALE
9:21 PEOPLE SCALE
9:57 BRAZILIA SINDROME
11:20 ONE OF THE MANY UNFORSEEN BYPRODUCTS
12:17 CAR INVASION
13:26 EXTREME SCALE CONFUSION
14:14 MODERNISM
16:14 THE MOST IMPORTANT SCALE
19:01 THINK BIG

[svennielsen]

I have read his book "Livet mellem husene" (Life Between the Houses, 2 edition, 1980). It is unfortunate that he is no longer able to communicate his message, so let us repeat some of the main points:

Activities in the city can be divided into necessary, voluntary and social activities. We need to go to work or school, shopping, take public transport and so on. These activities will not vary much depending on the urban environment. But voluntary activities like going for a walk, enjoy the weather depends very much on the urban environment. And only where many people are together it can lead to social interactions. And the most interesting for people is always - other people. So, it is better to gather than to scatter. Shop exhibitions do not offer much attention and if there is not even that, it will be a "lost" stretch. It just make distances between interesting areas bigger.

In a functional city activities are divided into areas separate from each other. Under such conditions there will not be much social life. People will take the car, and they will feel pressed together in public transport. In an integrated city activities are mixed, so all kind of people and ages are mixed together. Older people will sit on a bench watching people passing, perhaps talking to a friend at the same time. A good open space has sitting possibilities directed against the areas, where people are walking, thus there will be a lot to look on.

In areas with high car traffic there will be no communication. In a pedestrian street there will be eye contact and the noise level is so low that you can talk together. Thus it improves social life. Studies have shown that when a shopping street was closed to cars, the amount of pedestrians doubled. Where traffic is low, children can play on the street in safety. Communication across the street becomes possible.

Open places should not be to big. The eyes can see only so far. Thus, an open space divided into smaller areas is more interesting. Huge lawns are not as inviting as a forest with its ever changing environment and experiences. High-rise construction is not suitable for the human eye: we tend to look only ahead and down, so nothing above 1st floor has that much of interest. High-rise construction also create shadows, it brings down the cold wind from higher up, and communication between ground level and second floor is next to impossible.

These are his points and this is what he was suppose to tell you.

[renzomarsanochumbez]

Guel is my hero without doubt. Great man!!!

[larsc]

Such an inspiration fur urban planners! Thank you, Jan Gehl!

[bajer]

Wise man, unfortunately no one listened when Copenhagen was expanded in Nordhavnen and Ørestaden..

[alexday]

I really love his jokes! And I think I definitely have to read a book of his.

[Notagrapefruit]

A funny man with a lot on his heart. I'll never look at cozy and luvly european cities - or modern concrete-blocks for that matter - in the same light again. Awesome stuff!

[lamakocaman]

Verry interesting. Thank you for uploading.

[UDPMadrid-drci]

buildings shouldn't have more than 5 floors

[ellearchitecture]

Great Architect analyses on a funny way

[markcrepe]

Does anyone know if they Mayor of Bogota he is quoting is Enrique Pena Sola? I am having a hard time finding the actual quote to site for a paper I'm working on...any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

[ArnaldoGil]

Brasília Project is not shapped as an eagle. Its shapped as a plane.

[emanuelfrediani]

Estaria bueno tenerlo con subtítulos en español. Seria mas inclusivo

[Victor-lfvb]

is here no way to find the script of this video? if one have me know it, i'll really appreciate it.

[urbanshepherdgroup]

The road layout of that Copenhagen area was really bad. It could need some diversity.

[chhussain]

I have no more grudge on my teacher; now i understand but she should have enlightened me. so after all she was a lousy teacher

[jameswagesd]

Stop screwing around Bennett let the girl go!

[leonelprieto]

So you got the solution.. go back 100 years? god! every architect presents himself as a messiah! Cities get bigger all the time, the market have very specific demands and if you don't supply exactly that nobody hire you, the places for work are in the big cities, better services, better standard of living, basically peolple will continue to move and make them even bigger, and there is no way that you can build this scale there! this can be nice to dream but its completely out of touch whit the reality of most cities.