The timing was unfortunate. Insomnia meant that by the time I had arrived at The Building Centre for the talk I'd been up for 34hours. There was a fluorescent light flickering just above my head. In short within fifteen minutes of sitting down to listen to the Danish city planner Jan Gehl speak about his approach to creating cities I'd fallen -almost- to sleep, that annoying head falling backwards stage. Unfortunate.
However, had I been fully awake I'd have heard him speak about changes in city planning from the 1960s until today, where people - after decades of neglect - have once been again elevated to be a main feature in architecture, urban design and urban planning.
Having read more about him I really wish I had been able to listen properly. It's always affirming when someone well respected shares your opinion. ;p
Instinctively I've always thought that people should be at the heart of the architectural and urban design, that buildings are only successful if they enhance human interactions and work on a human scale. This thinking was at the heart of my MA thesis titled 'Between Spaces: Places of Delight' and remains my great motivator [and source of frustration when it comes to career development: I trained as a glass-maker, but what I want to do is be part of a creative team that works in the borderland of sociology, psychology, architecture and art to develop city spaces that enhance life. ]
I'm sorry that I didn't hear the whole talk, but I am pleased that I woke up in time to hear Gehl say something along the lines of "We should be designing cities for people, not helicopters. If we can afford to design cities for people and helicopters then great, but first of all we need to design cities for people." Succinct. Spot-on. It prompted me to google him this evening, and I've some reading to do. And so I begin:
Life between buildings has become Jan Gehl’s major focus of study and work. By starting with public life and the areas in which it takes place, building design becomes a means to an end, rather than an end in itself. Gehl emphasizes that life between buildings is a dimension of architecture that deserves more careful treatment. It is where social interaction and perception, urban recreation, and the sensory experience of city life take place. Life between buildings comprises the entire spectrum of human activities in public space – the necessary, the optional and the social types of behaviors which Gehl has studied meticulously. These are therefore vital areas, and planning processes must begin by understanding these spaces between buildings.
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