Full transcript
0:00[Musik]
0:11[Bifald]
0:23my first Line was stolen by the
0:27Introduction
0:28i the May Bogota in Colombia and he was
0:33the one who said it's amazing that we
0:35know so much about good Habitat for for
0:38Mountain gorillas we know so much about
0:41good Habitat for Siberian Tigers but we
0:44hardly know anything about good Urban
0:46Habitat for Homo
0:48sapiens and that is Exactly what I'm
0:52going to address today first I'll take
0:55you through a very short story about the
0:58story of my life I graduated as an
1:01Architect in 1960 I was educated in the
1:0550s the big thing at that time was was a
1:08brand new modernism where we were Tau a
1:13completely new way of building cities we
1:15were not going to build cities As We
1:18Know them cities were bad but what was
1:21good was freestanding buildings Streets
1:24and Squares were bad but what was good
1:26was Parks and grass so complete
1:38now City planning was being done on
1:40models and we learn in school of
1:43architecture to move about the
1:46OBS
1:48and bingo This is a good
1:54City r arit
2:05[Musik]
2:09psychologist and then came All Young
2:13psycholog our home and they
2:18kept On Us Architect saying why you
2:22Architect not really interested in
2:24people don't about people
2:38the place in my own case I had to go
2:40back to school of architecture for
2:42another 40
2:43years and What did I study there I
2:47really started to study something Which
2:49was virtually unknown at that time
2:54because we about cities and environ homi
3:03is new We have a new person the Modern
3:07Man and everything Which was for the old
3:09man doesn't apply to the New Man
3:12everything shall be different the City
3:15plan should be different The
3:16Neighborhood should be different the
3:18architecture should be different
3:20everything should be different and that
3:24this new way of thinking would have any
3:27influence On The quality of life for
3:29people
3:33about
3:36iud if take an object here
3:39and this is form and if you think this
3:43is architecture it is not architecture
3:45it is sculpture but architecture is
3:49actually the interplay between life and
3:53form and though very easy to study form
3:57it is complicated to study life and the
4:01interaction between form and life the
4:04forms influence our way of of using
4:07cities our way of living enormously much
4:10All This was not known at that time I
4:14did a few books and much to my surprise
4:17these books are now all over the world
4:19and to me It tells me that There is
4:22enormous hunger for Knowledge about what
4:24is good Habitat for homo
4:28sapiens I could now Go on to tell you
4:32about what happened further I had the
4:35privilege to be asked by a number of
4:38cities to come and try to Test out our
4:41theories and our research in real life
4:44we have worked with gale architects and
4:47we worked with Copenhagen Of course with
4:50Sydney Melbourne London New York
4:54Moscow but I'm not going to talk about
4:57this today I'll talk about what I deem
4:59is one of the most items for making good
5:03Urban habitats for homo sapiens that is
5:06about scale The Human scale people scale
5:11so we are going to to address the
5:14question of What is human scale and How
5:17can we find out about it when the
5:19modernist took over planning was that we
5:23saw a compl new scale
5:26appearing had the old scale and
5:35still speeding He Could still see the
5:39same distance everything was the same
5:41with him but not with his
5:44surroundings I can start by going back
5:47to the good old days the the way things
5:52were built before
5:55we ric
6:04that and that was many ide were tried
6:08out in the big the big way but before
6:11that before the second world war we had
6:14an other way of building cities they
6:16were built in small installments it was
6:18one house at a time and typically they
6:22were built around two building blocks
6:26Which have followed homo sapiens
6:28throughout the history
6:35The Line room space for moving actually
6:39It's about the feet which are linear And
6:42We Move linearly and the street is
6:45Expression of that the other space was
6:47Square and that was geared to the eye
6:50and that is the space you can Overlook
6:53and where you can have more roomy
6:56activities in city feet
7:02all about and all Dim small Gear to the
7:08actual Senses of Homo sapiens so if we
7:11look at the Old cities they were built
7:14to suit the body and they took their
7:17departure in the body of Homo sapiens
7:20all of them not only in benis not only
7:23in Europe all over the as
7:37used the
7:38environment the principle of these
7:41things first you made you first you had
7:45the life then you made the spaces for
7:47the life and then you put the buildings
7:50over to the
7:51spaces life space buildings The Order
7:56operation then came the modern
8:07modern and Of course it coincided with
8:11the big need of
8:13expanding the cities we had to build a
8:15lot very fast and this modernism was
8:19Handy it was easy to m produce and it
8:22Wass
8:34city in the Old Days they walked around
8:37and did it one by one Now the City
8:39planners moved up in aeroplanes and
8:42started to do everything from about so
8:44it looked
8:45nice the side planners were also up
8:48there just to organize the neighborhoods
8:51and the seedling seeds and Whatever they
8:54moved Around the Rooftop height and and
8:56corrected the models a little bit but
9:06people life where the kids were supposed
9:09to play and The old people were to get
9:11old the people spaces the people scale
9:16was completely neglected no profession
9:19was asked to look after this and then we
9:22had one place after the other being
9:25completely
9:27horrible i
9:35syil made late 50s after big Competition
9:39and when I was a student This was big of
9:43mankind Imagine A Fantastic new modernis
9:48capital in Brazil Brasilia is great it
9:54from Air
9:59wings and head of Eagle parament just
10:04great also in the helicopter brazilia is
10:07absolutely great they have the
10:10ministeries they have the various
10:12architectural Monuments they have the
10:14enormous parks
10:17great but what is not great in Brasilia
10:20is how people are treated because Nobody
10:23thought about that there would be people
10:26walking and moving about so now they are
10:33La
10:36over work endlessly and they never
10:39thought about that we never there was no
10:41money to give them all a helicopter So
10:43they really could Enjoy brazilia So this
10:48is the brazilia Syndrome and actually
10:51this kind of planning came to influence
10:54enormously the 50 years of city planning
10:58all over the world
11:01one of the unfor byproducts of this way
11:04of building was that the planers and
11:08architects completely forgot or got
11:11confused and they lost the sense of the
11:14ability to build things in human scale
11:18everything Was Done too big as if it was
11:21not people anymore but dinosaurs Which
11:24were to live in these places so
11:27Confusion Confusion Confusion and loss
11:31of knowledge of human scale Here It is
11:37too big too cold
11:40too uninteresting absolutely think about
11:44yourself sitting there with your
11:45girlfriend proposing and telling What a
11:50wonderful life the two of you are going
11:52to
11:53have this is
12:02This is Copenhagen Harbor some not
12:05you the other big new thing Which
12:08happened around 1960 were the car
12:11invasion of course Cars were invented
12:14before but around 1960 The cars really
12:17became a mass movement they were
12:19streaming into our societies they were
12:22filling all the Void and they were also
12:25feeling all the
12:35all cars but none of the cities had a
12:38department for people and public space
12:41and pedestrians and none of the cities
12:43had any Knowledge about how their cities
12:46were being used by people But they knew
12:49everything about how the traffic used
12:51the City that gave a Fantastic imbalance
12:55also The cars andux ofs
13:07big Dimensions and when the traffic was
13:10parked needed also big Dimension big
13:14spaces and furthermore
13:16there source Confusion that is the speed
13:21of the Cars old
13:29K hour and that speed you can you can
13:34have small Dimensions you can see all
13:37the details you can see the people the
13:39environment gets very interesting and
13:42personal in this way but now we started
13:46to Have 60 km an hour
13:48environment all over the place and You
13:52have big spaces so that you can maneuver
13:54with 60 km hour You have big signs to
13:57make you can see
14:06we in the last 50 years So here we
14:11are Dubai The Little Man over there is
14:15looking at modernism and car invasion
14:18combined and he is
14:21wondering is this What we can do to have
14:25a good Urban environment for Homo
14:28sapiens
14:30take you to another place Now we are in
14:32Copenhagen in a little rwh house area
14:35Two and half Story buildings in
14:38Copenhagen and the interesting thing
14:40about this area is that looking from the
14:43aeroplane completely uninteresting
14:46It's boring and going down in the
14:49helicopter and going over it oh my dear
14:52It's boring if In C scho of arure You
14:57will be thrown out because of Lack of
15:00vision and
15:02creativity but the interesting thing
15:04about this area is that down between the
15:07buildings it's got all the qualities you
15:10can ever dream of in a Housing area we
15:12have 12 criteria for quality in the
15:15human landscape and all 12 criteria are
15:19meet beautifully here and here the
15:21people are sitting having a Jolly good
15:24time and they are so busy having a good
15:28time
15:41hel further to this area interestingly
15:46It has about the highest real estate
15:49value in the city of Copenhagen This is
15:51about the
15:53most and more Inter still
15:59concent archit in
16:03Denmark so My conclusion from the
16:07studies and all these Reflection is that
16:10the most important scale of all is the
16:14people scale the City at EY level and
16:16the City for 5 kmet an hour if you can
16:19do the City plan scale and the side plan
16:22scale That's fine but For God's sake if
16:25you haven't got the Energy for all three
16:26scales do the people scale
16:35this to extent been Lost by planners and
16:39architects for quite a long time it is
16:42now rapidly being ref especially in
16:46improving the existing cities and also
16:50it Starts to be used in New towns is
16:53about time because Knowledge has been
16:56known All The Time by the people who Run
16:59restaurants and cafes Whatever They Know
17:02exactly the importance of the small
17:04scale they Squeeze people together like
17:07we do in a party where the thing is to
17:10get everybody into the kitchen then we
17:12will have a good party so these guys
17:16they know the people who Run Amusement
17:19parks like Tivoli like Disneyland they
17:22know and and like the people who have
17:25hotels here and there they know that is
17:27absolutely important
17:36typically for all these places
17:39Disneyland and this looking from the air
17:42It looks very very complicated and not
17:45very clear Whatever It looks very untidy
17:48but down between all these things It has
17:51got very nice people landscape And
17:54that's what we like what our children
17:56like and whatever
17:59there are now a few places where these
18:02ideas actually from the old days are
18:06being used I would normally say that the
18:09best Housing area in Copenhagen is just
18:11across the bridge in Sweden down here
18:14It's called
18:18B1 and this has exactly been done From
18:22The Bottom they anal activities going to
18:37low scale The Wind goes over and for and
18:40there we to see some of the life
18:43Which the old cities which we did Before
18:47The Second World War I will end by
18:51saying
18:59them Small I will end Byting my dear
19:04professor TV in Anderson he always said
19:07always make spaces smaller than you
19:09think you you need he said if you have a
19:12lecture and you expect 100 people then
19:15find a lecture hall for 50 and then the
19:18First 50 comes and it's great and then
19:20the next 50 comes and say oh
19:23this all
19:36in if you want something Which is the
19:40opposite if you have 100 people coming
19:42and a lecture for 500 they sitting all
19:44over the place all of them are wondering
19:47What else is going on in university
19:49since the other Ones have not arrived
19:51and the intensity is very low and the
19:54expectation is very low and going to
19:59always make spaces smaller than you
20:02think you need that will be much b and I
20:07think this is where this kind of
20:09Knowledge is very important in these
20:11days because we are in the Coming period
20:15to expand all the cities of the world
20:17especially in Africa and Asia and South
20:21America they are going to expand It
20:23might and we need to have a better
20:26Knowledge about good Urban hab
20:30homi weuse all new areas we in years to
20:35come also we have an obligation to make
20:39the new
20:40places much more livable much more
20:44sustainable for Walking And bicycling
20:47and much more healthy for Walking And
20:50bicycling we have to push them together
20:53concentrate and have great neighborhoods
20:56in the years to come We are going to
20:58change from
21:03LU
21:05[Bifald]