Jan Gehl
| Jan Gehl | |
|---|---|
Jan Gehl in 2006
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| Born |
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.
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."
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:
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Wikipedia