C (elebr) ities for people: On Wednesday, we had the honor and pleasure of spending half a day with Jan Gehl in Copenhagen (“Cities for people”; “Life between buildings”), perhaps the best-known living city planner in the world. As part of our research for the second volume of “Der Nachhalt”, Jan and Caspar Schmitz-Morkramer met for a 90-minute conversation at the Danish Architecture Center. Incidentally, this conversation also marks the start of our own podcast series.
Afterwards, Jan gave us a tour of the exhibition; a 10-year-old boy stopped in his tracks and asked: “Are you Jan Gehl?” We heard the same from the person sitting next to us during the subsequent smørrebrød meal in the “Kanal Caféen”. The city planner as celebrity: that’s Copenhagen for you.