This day provided a fantastic overview of Gehl Architects research over the last decades.  It was a huge treat.

David Sim – Partner and Creative Director for Gehl Architects – with whom we’ve worked on a number of projects – gave a lecture at the City Council.  It seems so simple how sustainable measures can improve our daily lives.  Afterwards,  Architecture & Design Scotland organised a walk led by David Sim and Riccardo Marini which highlighted how four wheel traffic still dominates most parts of Edinburgh, even in the newest developments.   It further compared the knowledge of historic designs, focussing on the bottom 3 metres of buildings and the pavements  as the most important design areas and nowadays designs neglecting these areas and clutter them with bins, entrances to car parks, vents etc.  This becomes clear when you carefully watch yourself moving through the city.  The walk inspired vivid discussion between the participants and it was great to see how enthusiastic and visionary David and Riccardo remained, despite seeing the same mistakes repeated by ‘masterplanning’ since the 1950s.

The day ended at the Filmhouse for the showing of the new movie ‘The Human Scale’.  The demand was so great that the showing changed to Cinema 1 and it was still packed.  This film looks at Gehl’s involvement around the globe and how very similar people-centred design  works to improve the quality of life in Asian, American and European cities alike and had lots of David playing with Lego!

For more information go to:  www.gehlarchitects.com or www.thehumanscale.dk