Gehl Jan - Soft city: building density for everyday life

Soft City was originally written in British English. The language has been modified from British spellings and terminology to their US equivalents. Therefore, words such as lift, pavement, and lorry now appear as elevator, sidewalk, and truck. One notable change is in the referencing of different floors of buildings. The British first floor is the second floor in US English.

Copyright 2019 Gehl Architects Finance & Administration ApS

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Library of Congress Control Number: 2018946755

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Project team

Birgitte Svarre, project manager

Marie Boye Thomsen, graphic layout

Scott Przibella, architect

Martin Nelson, project assistant

Camilla Siggard-Andersen, research assistant

Anne Louise Brath Severinsen, student assistant

Mads Kjr, student assistant

Elena Balabanska, student assistant

Anna Lindgaard Jensen, student assistant

Arianna Bavuso, student assistant

Samuel Csader, student assistant

Photographs in Soft City are mainly by the author. Special thanks to Lars Gemze for finding some harder-to-find motifs in his impressive collection.

This project was made possible with the financial support of Realdania, Denmark.

Manufactured in the United States of America

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Keywords: Climate change, communal space, community, Copenhagen, courtyard, cycling, enclosure, Dense-Low, density, human scale, hygge, mobility, nature, neighbors, spatial diversity, transit, walkability

What is the soft in soft city?

Soft is something to do with responsiveness

accommodating, absorbing, supple, pliable, excusing, tolerant, flexible, elastic, extendable, adaptable, changeable, anti-fragile

Soft is something to do with ease

simple, straight-forward, easy-going, effortless, smooth, intuitive, understandable

Soft is something to do with comfort

comfortable, snug, safe, protected, sheltered, peaceful, quiet, hyggelig

Soft is something to do with sharing

sociable, common, mutual, reciprocal, participatory, public

Soft is something to do with plurality

joined-up, hybrid, mixed-use, overlapping, multifunctional, interconnected

Soft is something to do with simplicity

low-tech, low-cost, low-key, modest

Soft is something to do with smallness

human scale, human dimension, individual control, fractal, self-determining

Soft is something to do with appealing to the senses

sensory, delightful, charming, seductive, intriguing

Soft is something to do with calm

peaceful, quiet, cool, low-key, serene, tranquil, mild

Soft is something to do with trust

sureness, clarity, certainty, confidence

Soft is something to do with consideration

gentle, compassionate, sympathetic, empathetic, caring, benign, kindly

Soft is something to do with invitation

welcoming, accessible, permeable, open

Soft is something to do with ecology

a light touch, natural, seasonal, low carbon footprint

Its about ease, comfort, and care in everyday life.

In 1933, an exclusive group of European architects and city planners met in Athens to sign the radically game-changing CIAM Charter of City Planning. This charter, often referred to as the Athens Charter, dealt with future architecture and cities, and basically advised that various city functions from now on should be carefully separated: always keep residences, workplaces, recreation, and traffic apart. This approach was, not surprisingly, termed functionalistic, and the whole movement was referred to as Modernism. These ideas not only came to be the guiding principles for architecture and city planning for the decades that followed in the twentieth century, they became totally dominant worldwide. Especially after 1960, the Modernist planning principles came to be completely dominant, as rapid urbanization began to take place around the world. As part of this, the traditional focus on creating cities around spaces for people was changed to focusing on buildings surrounded by leftover spaces. Everywhere, Modernist ideas of freestanding, monofunctional buildings surrounded by vaguely defined no-mans-lands became the way to go. All in all, these new principles represented the most radical course change in the history of human settlement. And, by and large, there was never a proper assessment of whether these changes actually worked for mankind. They, in fact, did not work for mankind, as exemplified by the widespread discontent with these kinds of settlements.

In 1998, a new conference of European city planners was invited to Athens. Based on experience from the 65 years since the previous conference, a new Athens Charter was developed that basically says that residences, workplaces, recreation, and communications must never be separated. A complete turnaround!

Seemingly, it took 65 years and numerous Modernist city districts to reach this conclusion. However, a counter cities-for-people movement had been gradually developing for quite a number of years in reaction to the technocratic modernist movement.

In the area of writings and research, the work of Jane Jacobs in New York, and her famous 1961 book The Death and Life of Great AmericanCities, stands out. Jane Jacobs raised the flag and excellently described many of the problems of Modernist city planning. She started to formulate new directions: look out of your windows; look at the people; look at life before you plan and design. In the years and decades following her call to arms, a number of researchers developed and deepened the work concerning how the built form influences quality of life. The New York School, with William H. Whyte, and later with the Project for Public Spaces, continues the work and inspiration from Jane Jacobs. In California, the Berkeley School, with Christopher Alexander, Donald Appleyard, Clare Cooper Marcus, Allan Jacobs, and Peter Bosselmann, contributed much valuable research and insights on people-oriented architecture and city planning over several decades.