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

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

Where city and building meet
edges that define space
edges as exchange zone
edges as staying zone

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.)
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

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 )