Jan Gehl is a Architecte and Urbaniste. He is professor emeritus in urban Design at the school of architecture of the Danish royal Academy of Copenhagen in Denmark. He studied and taught the urban design in the United States, in Canada, in Australia and Europe. He wrote several books on the development of public spaces, of which Life Between Buildings, using public space .

One recognizes it with his important academic work surrounding Strøget, a mall of Copenhagen. In July 2007, the mayor of New York, Michael Bloomberg, requested the comments of considered designer on the municipal level of New York, PlaNYC.

Ideology

In town planning, Gehl makes party of criticisms of the functionalist ideology. He recognizes that the functionalist ones allowed the creation of cities starting from the principles of hygiene and physiology, which improved quality of life downtown. On the other hand, functionalism completely drew aside the psychological and social vocation of the city. According to Gehl, functionalism would be in particular responsible for the disappearance of the public places and the streets animated with the profit of " ways, roads and grasses without end ".

Its contribution comes from the integration of research in anthropology and psychology by the interaction between people and their built medium. Its works concentrate on the receptions sensory of people and how the environment opens or crosses possibiltés of interactions.

In the development of public sites, Gehl recalls the correlation accentuated between the vocation of a site and its use. Installation and the relations (or the absence of interrelationship) between constructions determine the use of a site. The width and the outsides type of activity are largely influenced by their physical environment. The more the environment allows interactions between individuals, the more the individuals are attracted and use the place. With the segreation of the uses, exemplifié by zoning, Gehl an integration of the functions in the use of space recommends unless certain sites are incompatible with their entourage. For example, a university development would have, ideally, being scattered in a residential district with certain site commercial (coffee, theater, etc) to decompartmentalize the academic population and to facilitate its interactions with the citizens.

Human scale

Jan Gehl bases its works and studies on the sensory capacities of the human being to identify the forces and weaknesses of certain sites. This evaluation makes it possible thereafter to carry out a series of small modification to improve the subject. It bases on work of Kevin Lynch for recommender an approximate distance of 25 meters (82 feet) to facilitate the human contact.

According to Gehl, the best projects incorporate a gradation between the public life and the private life. Sites would have diffused a feeling of space completely public, semi-public, semi-private or completely private. Theoretically, installation could diffuse the use of the site clearly.

See too

Kevin Lynch

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