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Public Space Public Life Jan Gehl & Lars Genzoe
The Danish Architectural Press, the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts and School of Architectural Publishers, Copenhagen, 1996, Dkr 245 ISBN 87 7407 187 4 This book provides a well-illustrated and informative guide to the pedestrian spaces in the centre of Copenhagen. Inasmuch as it tries to be other things, it is much less successful.
The bulk of the book is taken up with descriptions of the streets and squares that have wholly (or in a few cases partially) been pedestrianized, starting with Stroget in 1962. The before and after photographs and locational diagrams make their points very clearly. Readers should be sure to examine them in conjunction with the Appendix which contains very useful plans, sections and descriptive statistics. The text is clear and readable, even if the translation into predominantly American English is unsteady in parts. The story told is one of increasing success. Although the initial schemes in the 1960s met opposition on such grounds as 'We are Danes not Italians', an ever more ambitious programme of street and square conversion ensued. The tone of the description is effusive, even self-congratulatory. Any casual summer visitor to Copenhagen would be likely to confirm the success of the city's renovated public spaces. The best known example is probably the Nyhavn. Here a formerly down-at-heel quayside has been turned into an attractive restaurant and cafe area that has acquired, in the authors' words, 'enormous popularity'. The sequential description of the pedestrian spaces is supported by some brief but interesting points on the scale of buildings, use of public bicycles, number of city centre residents, and the general reductions in parking provision...