In Style, Safety and Dignity

I just finished watching another great presentation, this time by Jan Gehl himself. Entitled People Cities = Sustainable Cities, Sustainable Cities = People Cities, Gehl's presentation was part of a public lecture series called International Dialogues: Architecture and Climate Change, which is put on in part by the Royal Institute of British Architects.

This presentation draws a connection between livable cities and sustainable cities, and argues that good urban planning and design can achieve the goals of a lively, attractive, safe, sustainable, and healthy city. Gehl takes the audience through infrastructure planning and design elements that encourage and invite pedestrians and cyclists and addresses the many benefits that this brings for cities and people.

The presentation is in four parts of roughly 15 minutes each. Many other excellent RIBA programs in this series can be found on gleeds.tv.

Without further ado... Part I

In the interest of saving my limited upload allotment, the other three parts can be found linked below.

Part II

Part III

Part IV

Creating Culture and Inviting the Use of Public Space

A few days ago I watched a video of an excellent presentation given by Kristian S. Villadsen from Gehl Architects called Designing Streets as Public Spaces in Northern Climate Cities. The presentation was part of a conference held at McGill University and put on by the Montréal Urban Ecology Centre.

Gehl Architects is an urban planning and design consultancy firm located in Copenhagen, Denmark. It was founded by Jan Gehl who wrote the classic Life Between Buildings, and whose work has inspired and influenced the redevelopment of Copenhagen towards a more pedestrian and cycling friendly city.

The video I found originally posted on copenhagenize.com, which I have come to learn is a term coined by Jan to describe the Copenhagenization of other cities.

What I found most interesting and inspiring about this presentation is the idea that a thriving pedestrian and cycling culture can be created by good urban design. While we might think that cities like Copenhagen have always been the cycling wonders that they are today, this video shows how it was a conscious effort to reclaim the streets and public spaces from cars and redesign them to promote their use by people. What this all means for Toronto is that a great cycling infrastructure is possible.

The video is about an hour long and well worth the watch.

Enjoy!