Public Space & Public Life during Covid 19

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Jan Gehl and his staff, with the support of Realdania and the City of Copenhagen, have looked at how the coronavirus pandemic and restrictions imposed for necessary social distancing have changed the ways in which people are using streets, public spaces, parks and playgrounds during the "lock-down."

A team of 60 surveyors completed observations over 12 hours on two days, a Friday and a Saturday, in Copenhagen, Helsingør, Svendborg and Horsen.

Information was logged using their digital platform called Public Space Public Life to record who was using public space for activities and when; to record if people were stationary or moving through the space and to record if those people who were outside were alone or in small groups.

Conclusions from that data have now been presented in their report as what are called 'snap shots' with charts, dynamic maps and simple graphs to record the time and the location of activity.

Downtown or commercial areas, particularly shopping streets, had less use than would be normal but local places with activities such as playgrounds were used more and used by more children and older people than before and observers recorded changes in gender distribution, so women were often seen in pairs while men tended to be either alone or in groups of four or more.

The research was undertaken because "Major global crisis, such as pandemics, economic depressions, and wars shape our societies and the way people experience everyday life."

No one can be sure how the pandemic will progress or what, if any, the immediate and the long-term consequences will be but this report forms an important and appropriate starting point for any changes and any new planning policies for public space that might be necessary.

the full report is available online in Danish or in English
Jan Gehl - People

 

Life Between Buildings

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Life Between Buildings - Using Public Space, by Jan Gehl, 1971
first English edition 1987 and new edition in English 2006 and 2011

 

In the introduction to this edition, Jan Gehl explains that Life Between Buildings was published in the 1970s to point out "the shortcomings of the functionalistic architecture and city planning that dominated the period."

"The book asked for concern for the people who were to move about in the spaces between the buildings, it urged for an understanding for the subtle qualities, which throughout the history of human settlements, had been related to the meetings of people in the public spaces, and had pointed to the life between buildings as a dimension of architecture, urban design and city planning to be carefully treated."

Although the first edition was published over 30 years ago, walking around recent developments on Amager and in the South Harbour area and certainly when walking around the redevelopment of the Carlsberg site, it appears that, even now, too often, the observations set out by Jan Gehl have been forgotten or ignored. There are seats and there is planting but too often these seem to be a token scattering of street furniture rather than reflecting a coherent approach for these areas.

 
 
 
 

How to Build a Good City - Jan Gehl on Louisiana Channel 

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If you don’t know Copenhagen well, or if you have not come across the work of Jan Gehl and his approach to planning in the city, then a good place to start is with How to Build a Good City - an interview with Gehl that was posted last year on Louisiana Channel.

I have been meaning for some time to post a link here to Louisiana Channel. This is an important and fascinating series of on-line films and long interviews from Louisiana Museum of Modern Art and although, as you would expect, many of the interviews relate directly to exhibitions at the museum or to the works of artists in their collection, the films range widely in their subjects and locations … there are interviews with leading architects and designers, including several with Bjarke Ingels, a series of interviews about the work of Jørn Uttzon and an interview, posted recently, is with Kim Herforth Nielsen of the architectural practice 3XN about their designs for the new Fish Market in Sydney.

 

Louisiana Channel

Happy Birthday

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Højbro Plads and the statue of Bishop Absalon looking across to Christiansborg ... the most recent building on the site of his castle

 

Today Copenhagen celebrates a birthday …

It's 850 years since Bishop Absalon had a castle built just out from the shore, in sheltered water, protected from the wind and the rain from the west by the hill of what is now Fredericksberg and tucked round from the open water of the sound, protected by the low-lying island of Amager …. and the rest - as they say - is history.

The celebrations continue for the next two weeks. The programme is full of information and ten walks planned around the sites and buildings associated with ten figures through the history of the city - from Bishop Absalon to Jan Gehl - and, of course, a full list of all the events.

København 850 - Golden Days

 

Art of Many and the Right to Space

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This is the exhibition that was the Danish contribution to the Venice Biennale of Architecture last year. The main section is an extensive display of architectural models from major architects and design partnerships in the country and the aim is to illustrate the importance of high-quality architecture in Denmark and, in a broader sense, the contribution of architecture to the community as a whole.

There is an important audio visual show by Jan Gehl about the work of their planning office in Copenhagen.

at the Danish Architecture Centre in Copenhagen until 1 October 2017