Topic > Urban Planning - 2108

Jan Gehl is a Danish architect who specializes in investigating and documenting how people move around cities. According to him, through the modernization of large cities, people have called for the strengthening of car traffic in cities and have ignored the more human dimension. This has caused cities to become noisy, unsafe and generally create undignified conditions for those who live there. He believes that the traditional functions of urban space as a place of residence and meeting are under threat21. Gehl therefore believes that we need to focus on man's original means of transportation: walking. It's about recreating old conditions, which he says are crucial to how we create our cities in the future. When people are invited to stay in the open and shared space, the city must be said to have a coherent structure and a variety of urban functions. This should lead to more activity and greater safety in our urban space. In other words, city life is strengthened if people are invited to walk around the city22. However, he states that even if there are many people on the streets, this is not necessarily a good thing. We must take into account that it is not just a matter of cramming in many people, but that it is important to give them the necessary and qualitative space23. What is meant by qualitative space? Gehl also argues that there are 3 activities that people carry out in urban space: necessary ones, social ones and optional ones. Necessary activities include going down to the supermarket, post office, etc., while optional activities are short stops in the square, walks, ball games, etc. Social activities are those in which communication is created between people. Necessary activities are carried out regardless of whether the environment is good or bad, while optional activities and social activities help strengthen life in the urban space.