For the past 50 years, urban planners have gone out of their way to build grandiose cities, with large open spaces to accommodate traffic and awe-inspiring views to impress the inhabitants.
Inadvertently, these cities that look inspiring from the window of an airplane or a car, offer very little to the pedestrian. Public spaces become uninviting and uninspiring, discouraging people from physical activities or from merely enjoying their surroundings.
With obesity and other lifestyle-associated problems on the rise, it is more important than ever to build cities for people. Cities that move at 5km/h.
Dubbed “the last living worldwide renowned guru in urbanism” legendary architect Jan Gehl has been rebuilding cities to accommodate the needs of modern societies throughout half a century. He has been involved in rebuilding most large cities imaginable, from Sao Paolo to New York, to Copenhagen, to Moscow, to Singapore.
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