Jan Gehl

Gehl Architects, Denmark

EDRA50 Keynote Speaker:

Jan Gehl, architect, professor and consultant on urban design, has focused his career on improving the quality of urban life, by reorienting the design of the city towards the pedestrian, public life and cyclists.

Forty years of research at the Royal Danish Academy School of Architecture in Copenhagen have resulted in a number of by now "classic" books. Life Between Buildings (1971) and Cities for the People (2010), now published in more than forty languages, are among the most referenced resources in city planning.

In 2000, Gehl founded with Helle Søholt Gehl Architects with the purpose of applying theories to practical planning. Major improvement projects have been carried out for Copenhagen, Melbourne, Sydney, London, New York and Moscow.