Jan Gehl

Jan Gehl

Jan Gehl in 2006
Born (1936-09-17) 17 September 1936
Copenhagen, Denmark
Nationality Danish
Alma mater Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, School of Architecture
Occupation Architect
Awards Sir Patrick Abercrombie Prize (1993)
Civic Trust Award (2009)
Practice Gehl Architects

Jan Gehl, Hon. FAIA (born 17 September 1936) is a Danish architect and urban design consultant based in Copenhagen whose career has focused on improving the quality of urban life by re-orienting city design towards the pedestrian and cyclist. He is a founding partner of Gehl Architects.

Biography

Gehl received a Masters of Architecture from the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen in 1960, and practiced architecture from 1960 to 1966. In 1966 he received a research grant from the institution for "studies of the form and use of public spaces," and has since been a lecturer and professor there, and a Visiting Professor in Canada, the US, New Zealand, Mexico, Australia, Belgium, Germany, Poland and Norway. He is a co-founding partner of Gehl Architects.

As a "young architect working in the suburbs," Gehl married a psychologist and "had many discussions about why the human side of architecture was not more carefully looked after by the architects, landscape architects, and planners... My wife and I set out to study the borderland between sociology, psychology, architecture, and planning."[1]

Influence

Gehl Architects' project for Brighton New Road employing shared space, awarded the UK Civic Trust Award

Gehl first published his influential Life Between Buildings in Danish in 1971, with the first English translation published in 1987. Gehl advocates a sensible, straightforward approach to improving urban form: systematically documenting urban spaces, making gradual incremental improvements, then documenting them again.

Gehl's book Public Spaces, Public Life describes how such incremental improvements have transformed Copenhagen from a car-dominated city to a pedestrian-oriented city over 40 years. Copenhagen's Strøget carfree zone, one of the longest pedestrian shopping areas in Europe, is primarily the result of Gehl's work.

Gehl participates in and advises many urban design and public projects around the world:

Gehl credits the "grandmother of humanistic planning" Jane Jacobs for drawing his attention to the importance of human scale. “Fifty years ago she said – go out there and see what works and what doesn’t work, and learn from reality. Look out of your windows, spend time in the streets and squares and see how people actually use spaces, learn from that, and use it.”[11]

Awards and distinctions

Selected publications

See also

References

External links

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