http://www.amazon.com/Cities-People-Jan-Gehl/dp/159726573X/ref=pd_sim_b_1
Foreword and preface
- Foreword
- Preface
- interaction between form and life as a crucial precondition for good architecture
1. The human dimension
- 1.1 The human dimension
- P3 the human dimension -overlooked, neglected, phased out
- a question of life and death -for five decades.
- 1.2 First we shape the cities – then they shape us
- P10 case: Copenhagen
- P14 case: Melbourne, 1993 to 2004
- 1.3 The city as meeting place
- P20
- necessary activities -under all conditions
- optional activities -under good conditions
- P21 Graphic representation of the connection between outdoor quality and outdoor activities.
- P25 The city as meeting place – in an historic perspective
- under pressure from the car invasion and modernistic planning ideology.
2. Scenes and scale
- 2.1 Senses and scale
- P32 The basic elements of city architecture are movement space and experience space. The street reflects the linear movement pattern of feet and the square represents the area the eye can take in.
- P43 Human scale vs Car scale. 5km/h architecture and 60km/h architecture
- P44 Photos
- 2.2 Senses and communication
- P52 Warm, intense contacts between people take place at short distances.
- small in scale means exciting, intense and “warm” cities
- large spaces and large buildings signal an impersonal, formal and cool urban environment
- 2.3 The shattered scale
- P58 Lack of understanding and respecting the human scale impacts on the great majority of new cities and built-up areas. Buildings and city spaces grow increasingly larger but the people who are expected to use them are as always -small.
3. The lively, safe, sustainable, and healthy city
- 3.1 The lively city
- P62 Life in the city is a relative concept. It is not the number of people that counts but the feeling that the place is populated and being used (local streets in Brazil and the Netherlands and a city street in Flashing, NY)
- City life as process
- P64 Life in the city is a self-reinforcing process. Something happens because something happens because something happens.
- Once a children’s game gets going, it can quickly attract more participants.
- Corresponding process are at work with adult activities.
- People come where people are.
- P66 New residential areas are sparsely populated. A century ago seven times more people lived in the same amount of space.
- It is important to assemble people and events. However, too many and too large outdoor spaces are typically provided for new residential areas. The process that encourage city life never have a chance to get started.
- Dense city – lively city?
- How many and how long: quality and quantity
- P72 A study of outdoor activities in 12 Canadian residential streets
- lengthy stays mean lively cities.
- Soft edges -lively cities
- P75
- Where city and building meet
- edges that define space
- edges as exchange zone
- edges as staying zone
- P78
- soft edges -and hard
- seven times more city life in front of active facades.
- P81 closed ground-floor facades -lifeless cities
- P83 69% took place in or around the semiprivate front yards
- The remaining 31% of the activities took place in the streets.
- Lively city -process, time, numbers and invitation
- 3.2 The safe city
- The safe city
- Safety and traffic
- Safety and security
- P97 safe city – open city
- The Death and Life of Great American Cities> importance of safety in the streets. Her expressions ‘street watchers‘ and ‘eyes on the street‘ have since become integral to city planning terminology.
- safety and society
- The light from building along city streets can make a significant contribution to the feeling of security when darkness falls
- life in the city means safer cities – and safe cities provide more life
- soft edges mean safer cities
- 3.3 The sustainable city
- 3.4 The healthy city
- P112 Exercise by choice
- Providing opportunities for exercise and self-expression is a logical and valuable answer to the new challenges.
- Exercise as a cause,a choice and a business opportunity
- Exercise as natural part of daily life
- P115 City life, safety, sustainability and health as an integrated city policy!
4. The city at eye level
- 4.1 The battle for quality is on the small scale
- 4.2 Good cities for walking
- 4.3 Good cities for staying
- P136 Edge effect
- Good and bad places to sit
- P145 Movable chairs
- 4.4 Good cities for meeting
- 4.5 Self-expression, play, and exercise
- The city as playground
- More energy and creativity
- in good shape(of body)
- have: indoor life -wanted:fresh air and exercise
- Good cities have built-in opportunities for play and self-expression. Simple solutions are often the most convincing.
- P160 Fixed, flexible and fleeting
- Fixed: Space, furniture and set up.
- Flexible: Special, often seasonal activities
- Fleeting: Short term but important activities
- 4.6 Good places, fine scale
- 4.7 Good weather at eye level, please
- 4.8 Beautiful cities, good experiences
- P176 concern for visual quality must include all urban elements
- P177 The interplay between functional and spatial qualities has been convincingly treated in Piazza del Campo in Siena, Italy, one of the reasons the square has served as a meeting place for 700 years.
- P178 aesthetic quality -for all senses
- P180 Lighting is the focus of conscious artistic treatment in many cities. Pioneering efforts were made in Lyon in the years after 1990.
- 4.9 Good cities for bicycling
5. Life, space, buildings -in that order
- 5.1 The Brazilia Syndrome
- 5.2 Life, space, buildings – in that order
- P208 Ponpidou Center/Guggenheim Bilbao VS Melbourne Museum in Federation Square/ Opera house Oslo for urban mountain climbing.
- P209 making life in the cities visible.
6. Developing cities
- 6.1 Developing cities
- 6.2 The human dimension – a universal starting point
7. Toolbox
- Planning principles: to assemble or disperse
- Four traffic planning principles
- To invite or repel -seeing and hearing contacts
- The city at eye level:
- 12 quality idea
- designing the ground floor
- Reordering priorities, please
Appendix
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Illustrations and photos
- Index
From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. In this fascinating look inside the key architectural factors that determine a city’s livability, award-winning Danish architect and author Gehl (Public Spaces, Public Life) examines the factors he deems essential to a successful city. Not surprisingly, places designed without good room for safe walking and biking lead to a sedentary life “behind steering wheel and computer screen.” A “lively” city, on the other hand, “counters the trend for people to withdraw into gated communities… serving a democratic function where people encounter social diversity.” It’s in examining architecture’s psychological effects that Gehl truly shines; public spaces without comfortable seating and properly-scaled “talkscapes” evoking Italian piazzas enact a high human toll and greatly impact how the city functions at eye-level. Soaring, dehumanizing architecture has a diminishing effect on the individual, creating a shocking “high-rise” in crime rates. Even those without a professional interest in architecture will be fascinated by the assertions, like “slow traffic means lively cities,” that Gehl makes. Coming to the conclusion that “a good city is like a good party: guests stay because they are enjoying themselves,” Gehl keeps his latest effort engaging from start to finish. Illus. (Sept.)
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Review
“This book elaborates on many of Gehl’s seminal ideas, examines some of the world’s cities that have successfully improved over the last few decades, and states the challenges for the future. Many generations will lead happier lives and cities will be more competitive if their leaders heed his advice.”
(Enrique Pe�alosa former Mayor of Bogot�, Colombia 20100426)
“Jan Gehl continues to astonish us with his insight into what really makes cities work. He has a global reach in this book based on work he has done in Europe, Australia, and America with comparative data on how pedestrians use public spaces. The deep appeal is how quickly he has been able to assist some cities in turning their traffic-riddled streets into havens for people.”
(Peter Newman Professor of Sustainability, Curtin University, Australia )
“Jan Gehl’s new manifesto…Pages will be dog-eared, margins annotated… accessibly deployed framework of research and a logical, lucid framework for all the telling details and surprising data. The book organizes a set of observations that will strike some readers as obvious, others as radical, but practically all as convincing, revealing how deeply grounded Gehl”s system is in common sense. This kind of synthesis is no small task, and Gehl performs it with aplomb.”
(ArchNewsNow )
“If Cities for People is widely read and widely applied, the world’s urban life will be immeasurably better.”
(New Urban News )
“Fascinating guide on how to create cities that local residents fall in love with, rather than simply put up with.”
(Shareable: Cities )
“Jan Gehl’s most recent book – Cities for People – brought with it a lot of excitement and expectations. With a track record like his, however, it comes as no surprise that Gehl’s strong perspective, clear prose and rigorous research is not a disappointment. Continuing his quest to secure the importance of the human experience as a top priority when planning and designing cities, Cities for People is a succinct collection of his experience and lessons to-date.”
“Ultimately, Cities for People is one of those books that everybody – no matter what level you are in the industry – is bound to learn from. Clear and accessible, it’s a must-read for students and early practitioners of planning, architecture, and landscape design, as well as anybody interested creating humane pedestrian cities. If one hasn’t read any of Gehl’s previous books, this is also a great place to start.”
(Re:place )
“Jan Gehl is our greatest observer of urban quality and an indispensable philosopher of cities as solutions to the environmental and health crises that we face. With over half the world’s population now in urban areas, the entire planet needs to learn the lessons he offers in Cities for People.”
(Janette Sadik-Khan Commissioner of the New York City Department of Transportation )