![]() Gehl notes that urban areas built with cyclists and pedestrians in mind first are more often used than those with motor vehicle traffic patterns as the foundation of their design. Such areas make people want to hurry past instead of stop and look around. Flat walls of glass and buildings higher than four stories are not only uninteresting (except perhaps for touristy gawks at skyscrapers) but cold and uninviting. ![]() ![]() Such spaces must also be safe, sustainable, and healthy for human occupation. Gehl argues that because humans look straight ahead most of the time, what’s at eye level should catch a pedestrian’s interest enough to want to linger a while on a city street. What would a modern city look like if it was designed around people instead of traffic, around public spaces instead of roads? Why are some European cities so full of people walking and cycling? Architect and author Jan Gehl presents a convincing proposal for how to make desolate urban spaces attractive to people by using the physical limitations of the human body, or, as he puts it, “the human dimension.” ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |