Global Compact report 2014

Gehl Architects

Creating
Better Cities
Global Compact
Report 2014

Contents
1
2
6
10
18

The 10 principles
Statement of Continued Support
Gehl Architects Overview
Gehl Highlighted Projects
Gehl Actions

Global Compact Overview

Launched in July 2000, the United Nations
(UN) Global Compact is both a policy
platform and a practical framework
for companies that are committed to
sustainability and responsible business
practices. The UN Global Compact asks
companies to embrace, support and enact,
within their sphere of influence, a set of
core values in the areas of human rights,
labour standards, the environment and anticorruption. An integral part of the UN Global
Compact commitment are the individual
members Communication on Progress (COP).

Global Compact report 2014

Gehl Architects

The 10 Principles
Human Rights

Principle 1: Businesses
should support and respect the
protection of internationally
proclaimed human rights; and
Principle 2: Make sure that they
are not complicit in human rights
abuses.

Labour

Principle 3: Businesses should

uphold the freedom of association
and the effective recognition of
the right to collective bargaining;
Principle 4: the elimination of all
forms of forced and compulsory
labour;
Principle 5: the effective abolition
of child labour;
Principle 6: the elimination
of discrimination in respect of
employment and occupation.

Environment
Principle 7: Businesses should
support a precautionary approach
to environmental challenges;
Principle 8: undertake initiatives
to promote greater environmental
responsibility; and
Principle 9: encourage the
development and diffusion
of environmentally friendly
technologies.
Anti-corruption
Principle 10: Businesses should
work against corruption in all its
forms, including extortion and
bribery.

Statement of
Continued Support

Gehl Architects joined

the United Nations Global
Compact in 2008 and we
continue to support the
initiative. Our vision is to
create better cities. We aspire
to create cities that are lively,
healthy, attractive, sustainable
and safe and thereby
improve peoples quality
of life.
This past year we have been engaged in
urban development projects addressing
different aspects and challenges of global
urbanization from rapid urbanization, to
the massive expansion of private vehicles
and thereby unbalanced mobility, to market
pressures associated with the renewal of
the historic fabric of cities, and the decrease
of quality of life in the existing urban cores of
cities.
All of these challenges are not dependent
on geography or place but are issues that

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Gehl Architects

are growing and which cites share globally.

However, all cities also share the key to
unlocking these challenges through clear
and visionary leadership. The clients and
collaborators that we work with all have the
ambition to be visionary leaders, and they
work with us because they share our values
and aim of building cities for people,
and because they know that we can assist
them in their process of developing clear
strategies and ensuring the implementation
of new ideas and priorities.

engage with the local planning authorities

and to improve the quality of public spaces
in the existing urban cores of Mar del Plata
in Argentina, Cali in Colombia and Xalapa
in Mexico. In these cities, pilot projects and
temporary interventions illustrate solutions
on how public spaces can be improved
and bicycle infrastructure implemented.
Testing the results prior to implementation
is a powerful solution to complex problems
where space has become a scarce
resource.

Throughout the past year we have continued

to support and collaborate with the Energy
Foundation and their Sustainable Cities
program, which focuses on Chinese cities.
We have engaged in panel discussions on
developing new sustainable guidelines for
Chinese urbanization and have been working
with local planners and architects using
our public space public life methods in
Shanghai. These methods focus on people
centered data and quality of space and result
in strategies to improve urban quality, public
space networks and quality of life within
urban communities.

IADB continues to grow as a partner. We are

focused on building knowledge with them,
related to the Gehl Methodology, for their
staff as well as that of their partner cities in
Latin and South America.
Our team has also been engaged in a
collaborative process which involves
working directly for the City of So Paulo
on reimagining how key public spaces in
the historic part of the city can once again
be lively, safe and attractive to people
related activities. More than 100 people
were engaged in this process, through
dialogue, workshops and analysis, including
4 downtown universities. Discussions on who
has the right to public spaces in a relatively
new democracy such as Brazil is something
which is relevant to everyone who engages in

In collaboration with the Inter-American

Development Bank (IADB), Gehl Architects
have expanded a city program, for 3 cities,
throughout the past year. The aim is to

Gehl Architects was the winner of an

international competition for a former
railway yard. Many cities face the challenges
of increasing density and the typical large
scale commercial form and stereotype
of programming towards mega blocks,
large offices and a limited mix of uses. As
a contrast to the Euro Lille development,
around the international station node
connecting Lille to Paris, as well as London,
the Gehl Development Framework ensures
a human scale block typology and heritage
of existing rail structures as an important
element of identity. Rather than designing
a new isolated urban district, we aspire to
design a piece of city integrated, compact,
and lively in a human scale.

urban issues and dreams of a future where

cities such as So Paulo can better balance
the needs of the individual, as well as quality
of life for urban communities with economic
growth of this important region.
The final couple of projects that I would like
to highlight are located on the European
continent a comprehensive strategy for
Moscows city center and a development
framework for the former railway yards of
Lille in France.
The Copenhagen based Gehl Architects team
has worked directly for the City of Moscow to
improve the traffic balance of the inner city.
In a sense it is a classic challenge related to
parked cars dominating streets, sidewalks
and squares, but also a great opportunity to
improve the sense of orientation, quality of
riverbanks and to celebrate the grandness of
the citys architecture. It is impressive to see
how fast the urban government is already
acting towards implementing the strategies
in order to improve the environment, space,
air quality and to celebrate the identity of
this great city. Our hope is that these results
can impact not only Moscow but also other
great cities.

On a global scale, increasingly cities are

seeing the value of a different approach, and
after 14 years of Gehl Architects practice we
feel the general global approach to planning
is slowly changing from a modernistic and
functional view of cities to a more holistic
approach, also offering a role for softer
social, as well as cultural areas of planning.
All ten principles of the United Nations
Global Compact are played out in the public
realm and in the city and all ten principles
can be supported by a sustained focus on
making the public realm open, accessible,

The final project to be mentioned this

year is located in Lille, France, where

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Gehl Architects

our effort to improve the worlds cities and

make them places of quality for all people.
Hence it is with great pride that we express
our continued support to the United Nations
Global Compact initiative.

democratic and a place of quality for all

people.
We aspire to address all the issues that have
a foundation in the United Nations Global
Compact initiative in all of the projects we
develop around the world but also through
our communication effort in books and films,
our capacity building as well as in the office
amongst ourselves.
The core United Nations Global Compact
initiative is at the heart of our work; for
more than a decade now, Gehl Architects
have not only maintained but strengthened

Helle Sholt
Founding Partner and CEO
Gehl Architects

Life

Form

We focus on the
relationship between the
built environment and
peoples quality of life.

Gehl Architects
Overview

The practice
Gehl Architects is an urban research and
design consultancy offering expertise in the
fields of architecture, urban design, and city
planning. We address global trends with a
people-focused approach, utilizing empirical
analysis to understand how the built
environment can promote human
flourishing. We apply this analysis
to strategic planning and humancentered design to empower citizens,
decision makers, company leaders, and
organizations.

Regardless of the complexity of a project,

our process always begins with people.
We measure how the city is performing for
people to provide guidance for planning,
empowerment and design. Our vision is
to create resilient places that are livable
today and sustainable tomorrow. Our clients
share a common long-term commitment
to holistically yet incrementally respond to
peoples needs to improve the environment
in which people live.

Our method and design approach

The study of peoples well-being lays the
foundation for our strategic planning and
design. We begin with: first life then
space and finally buildings. Our design
solutions begin with formulating a vision
and a comprehensive program of activities
based on the type of life its activities and
attractions that are inherent in a given
area. The next step is to develop a public
space network that can support the public
life through scale, form and climate. Finally
we envision how buildings can contribute
to our aspirations for public life in terms of
height, massing and scale as well as their
functions and interaction with the public
realm.

Our work is based on the human dimension

the built environments effect on social
interaction between people. We consider
lively and widely used public space areas
to be important keys to quality in cities and
to overall wellbeing. Public spaces can
also assist in making healthier choices, an
easier choice by allowing people to integrate
physical activity into their everyday routines
by walking, biking or taking transit.

Strategic planning for

and with people
We take a holistic view to strategic planning,
mediating between typical silos of disciplines
to ensure that urban interventions are rooted
in a comprehensive understanding of how
the specific urban space is used.

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Gehl Architects

Gehl team
Our multi-disciplinary team of 46 people
include architects, urban designers,
landscape architects, graphic designers,
sociologists, anthropologists and cultural
theorists, who are based between
Copenhagen, San Francisco and NYC.
Additionally, Gehl Architects employ
several Senior Consultants, all of them
internationally recognized experts
within their field. To promote a better
understanding across cultures, our team
has a wide variety of national and ethnic
backgrounds, and the gender distribution
is aimed at being a fair representation of
society in general.

established during the many years of

research by Jan Gehl. The Gehl team is
actively engaging in dialogue around the
world to apply 45 years of urban design
research, co-creatively with our clients to
tailor services that are specific to context,
scale and purpose. We work with a wide
variety of clients, ranging from mayors
of world capitals and large mixed-use
property developers to non-governmental
organizations, community groups,
foundations, universities and housing
associations.
Learn more about our approach
on our website

Collaborating with clients and partners

around the world, our team works to tailor
and contextualize design, planning and
research that builds upon the foundation

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Gehl Highlighted
Projects
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A New Heart for

So Paulo

Global Compact report 2014

Gehl Architects

By reinvigorating life into the city centre,

Gehl Architects project in So Paulo will
help address these two important issues of
crime and safety. By improving access and
making it possible for different activities to
unfold in a number of public spaces such as
Anhangaba Square, the project will help
the city to once again become a welcoming
place to spend time regardless of income,
and the expected increase in the city life will
eventually help increase peoples sense of
security. Four selected public spaces will act
as pilot projects for a longer term strategy
for the city centre. These include Avenida So
Joo, Rua 25 de Maro, Pateo do Collegio
& Rua Roberto Simonsen, and Largo So
Francisco & Praca Outvidor Pacheco e Silva.

2013 and ongoing

Client: So Paulo Urbanismo, City of So Paulo

Due to the enormous growth

during the last decades, So
Paulo now belongs among
the most populous cities in
the world. Most of this growth
has, however, taken place in
the suburban regions, and
the population in the inner
city has decreased in recent
years.

The project also helps to build a more

accountable planning process in Brazils
major city. Gehl Architects has conducted a
series of workshops with city agencies, local
universities and a whole series of NGOs and
community representatives. In April 2003
everyone from the head of city planning to
the local mayors office joined in dilaogue
to identify the problems and potential of
their city.

The city centre, which used to be an area full

of life, is not a very welcoming place today,
characterised by exploding traffic, empty
buildings, discount outlets and parking
lots. The deserted city centre is a symbol of
unequal development where high property
prices have pushed many people out to the
periphery, and the area also struggles as
many other big cities in the region with
issues of crime and safety.

Read more on our website

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Moscow

Towards a Great City

for People

2011 to 2013
Client: GenPlan, City Planning Department,
City of Moscow

in how they move around their city, e.g. by

making the streets easier to navigate and
walk around.

Over the years Moscow has

developed into a city which
focuses mainly on providing
an efficient transport
system, and to a large extent
forgetting about the people
that inhabit, move and spend
time in the city.

Some of the recommendations have

already been implemented, actions such as
enforcing parking bans along sidewalks and
the removal of visual clutter of signs and
billboards, but more importantly the project
has started a conversation about the city,
what qualities it should offer and how people
could possibly use it in new ways.
The public spaces of Moscow are often
formal squares centered around monuments
rather than the people who spend time
there. A number of strategies that we have
proposed involve ideas of how to transform
the public spaces in Moscow into places
where people can express themselves in
different ways, such as establishing a river
park.

As a result the city has exploded with traffic

in a way that puts pedestrians at risk and
limits the possibilities of enjoying the many
assets that the city has to offer.
Gehl Architects has conducted a Public
Space, Public Life survey, which documents,
analyzes the challenges related to car traffic
and highlights the possibilities of building a
new urban culture in Moscow which focuses
on urban quality of life.

The City is waking up to the needs of its

people, and has already turned Gorky Park
into a thriving public space with sports
facilities, cafs, gardens and outdoor
tribunes. Every day thousands of people
gather at this formerly derelict amusement
park, proving that Moscows citizens are
interested and eager to spend time in public
spaces.

A key element in the strategy has been to

offer the people of Moscow more choice

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Gorky Park is just one example. Many other

examples can follow and the impact of the
project cannot as of yet be determined but
it has marked the beginning of a process of
imagining both for planners and citizens
in Moscow. In the fall of 2013 our report
Moscow: Towards a Great City for People
was made into a street exhibition in the city

center, sharing Gehl Architects findings,

ideas and visions with the people of Moscow
bringing them on board in a process of
change for the future where the City of
Moscow is already taking concrete steps to
make change happen.
Read more on our website

Tverskaya before (above) and after (beneath)

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Gothenburg
Rivercity

and thoroughly understood the preconditions

for the development. This included three
preparation workshops focusing on:

2009 to 2013
Client: City of Gothenburg

Like many other cities

around the world Gothenburg
has been and still is in the
process of transformation
from a heavy industrial city
to a postmodern city.

New

planning tools such as new

partnership models, steering tools,
public involvement, etc.
Understanding

the challenges related

to climate and environment
Issues

of social integration
Based on these workshops, 10 international
teams were invited to Gothenburg to
work together for 5 days with the City of
Gothenburg to produce strategies, concepts
and ideas for the development. Rather
than competing, the teams were meant to
complement each other in order to produce
the most integrated vision and strategy.
This principle was later repeated in the
development of a more specific site, where
each team was responsible for specific
teams such as climate/water, parks/public
spaces, programming of functions and
densification and economic drivers in the
end delivering an integrated plan.
Once the vision for the whole harbor area
was approved by the local politicians,
an intensive public consultation process
followed including new online forum, a

One of the major tasks in recent years

has been the redevelopment of the inner
harbor area. The challenge lies in how such
a big and strategically important place in
the city can be transformed in a way that
corresponds with the demands of todays
society? To meet this challenge, a new way
of conducting planning is needed.
Gehl Architects was hired in as consultants
in late 2009 to help facilitate a process
which would both help to establish a more
cross-disciplinary and integrated approach
among the city staff as well as securing
political ownership and public involvement.
Instead of developing the big harbor area in
a piece by piece way, a new approach was
developed that looked at the area as a whole

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introduce and slowly build a new planning

culture in Gothenburg in terms of new ways
of collaborating and new ways of process
management, which is needed to secure
more responsive planning.

public exhibition and a local secretariat that

could be present in the area that was to be
developed. In the end 9-10.000 people were
involved over a period of 2-3 months.
The impact of the project has been to

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Gehl Actions
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Engage in
Partnerships

In recognition of the complexity facing cities today thus also

the complexity of solutions needed Gehl has in recent years
engaged in various partnerships with relevant partners with
whom we can work towards building and developing cities for
human flourishing on a global scale.
Partnership with UN Habitat
Gehl has formalized a strategic partnership
with UN Habitat. The aims are to strengthen
and expand the knowledge about good urban
design in terms of building sustainable
cities in the developing world as well as to
develop local capacity for developing and
implementing good urban design practices
and public space design and management.

Partnerships with universities

In order to maintain a strong link to research
and new knowledge within the field of urban
design and architecture we have continued
to expand our relationship with varying
international universities. Over the course
of the year, numerous interns have joined
our work environment. This collaborative
relationship enables us to pass on our
own experience and knowledge to future
planners, architects and others working
or just beginning to look for work within
urban development. In addition, it is our
aim to grow research related projects within
Gehl Institute where the research core
is split between Gehl and the partnering
university. At this time, we have established
partnerships with universities both in
Europe, Denmark and in the US, including
ITU, DTU and CBS in Denmark, Seattle
University in the US, Bauhaus in Germany,
among others.

Partnership with Pricewaterhouse

Coopers (PwC)
PwC and Gehl are currently collaborating
to understand how the region of Mre
Romsdal can be strengthened by three key
cities lesund, Molde and Kristiansund
becoming the catalysts which drives
the region. PwC is leading the charge in
understanding the social capabilities of
these cities while Gehl is analyzing the urban
capitol.

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Advocacy through
Leadership

An important part of our

work involves giving talks in a
variety of international cities
around the world. This form of
engagement provides us the
opportunity to put the livable
city on the agenda and to
discuss with leaders the act
of promoting and developing
cities with a human focus.

and World Urban Forum, among others.

Taking leadership in the field of urban
planning also involves influencing change at
the policy level. Inspired by the work of Jan
Gehl, the new National Architecture Policy in
Denmark is entitled Mennesker i Centrum
(Putting People First).
We also prioritize our involvement in think
thanks as a means to be strong advocates
for cities for people. In the past year CEO
Helle Sholt has been a member of the
Danish think thank Byen 2025 initiated by
the Ministry of Housing, Urban and Rural
Affairs. The result of this work is a visionary
document focusing on how to maintain and
develop strong urban communities in a
time, when cities are becoming increasingly
segregated.

In the past year we have talked at events

such as the International Transport Forum,

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Engage Globally,
Act Locally

Global Compact report 2014

Gehl Architects

While engaging in global

discussions about how
cities develop, it is equally
important to anchor our work
in concrete local situations.
This requires a profound understanding
of local conditions both in terms of local
challenges to be dealt with as well as unique
opportunities for development. In the past
year we have taken various actions to have
a stronger local presence in the various
contexts where we work.
In 2013 we started up a project in the
seaside town of Mar del Plata in Argentina.
The project was organized in such a way
that the Project Manager was posted in
Mar del Plata for 3 months. The aim of
this was to allow for a very strong capacity
building component, where local planning
staff were trained in methods to secure a
people-focused design, and it also gave us
the opportunity to develop better informed
solutions based on local insights and
discussions.

In addition, at the start of 2014 we opened

two Gehl Studios in the US, based in San
Francisco and New York, which have allowed
us to be closer to our US and Latin American
clients and collaborators and to follow our
projects more closely and take stronger local
actions.

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Enhancing
Accountability

As consultants we are concerned with how to secure long

lasting change. An aspect of this is to understand the effect
of our work and learn from it. We therefore strive to establish
long lasting relationships with our clients which allow for
this process of securing accountability. A concrete example
of this includes:
The Pilot Project
approach
In recent years we
have introduced
the idea of pilot
projects a
quick way to test,
measure and refine
urban design ideas.
This approach is now
becoming an increasingly
strategic initiative as it allows for direct
dialogue with different stakeholders about
their needs and aspirations.

for San Franciscos Park-Let program which

over the years has become an increasingly
formalized part of San Franciscos strategy
for the development of quality in the public
space. By initiating the LIZ program the city
is attempting to take the Park-Let concept to
a new level.
In practice 10 sites were identified along
the main street Market Street to become
Bureaucracy Free zones where the
sometimes slow and frustrating processes
associated with developing projects in public
spaces, are being lifted and streamlined to
create greater incentives for private sector
organizations to invest in urban projects.
As it is the case with Park-Lets, the private
party finances, maintains and operates the
projects and must also remove and clean
up afterwards. In return, the LIZ operators
have control over a piece of real estate on

In San Francisco the pilot initiative is named

LIZ Living Innovation Zones and it has
been developed in partnership between
San Franciscos Planning Department, the
Mayors Office of Civic Innovation(MOCI). In
a way, LIZ is as an evolution of the concept

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the sidewalk on San Franciscos busiest and

most visited street. In return all initiatives
must contribute to a set of success criteria:

Encourage

Innovation and
Experimentation in everyday
situations
Learn

and Share public spaces to

adapt to the latest innovation, trends
and needs of our society.

Enhance

Public Space as places

to meet, socialize and safely and
comfortably spend time.
Strengthen

Economic Development
understanding that people spaces are
good for business

Learn more about this initiative

on our website

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Measuring
the Effect

One of our core services is the Public Space Public Life

Surveys surveys that evaluate the quality of cities
from a people focus and formulate recommendations for
improvement. These surveys have been repeated in
a number of cities all over the world as a way of
documenting change.
In addition to the PSPL we have in the
past year started to develop other ways
of measuring the effect of public space
improvements. One such example is a
current project World Class Streets 2.0
in NY. This project follows up on our work
related to World Class Streets from 2007
where a number of public spaces across
the wider city region were selected for repurposing, this time researching how the
public space projects can foster quality of
life and impact equitable growth patterns in
cities.

to reclaim space in their neighborhoods

and how reclaiming streets impacts these
local neighborhoods and improves quality
of life for all citizens, not just the business
community. The project seeks to develop
indicators to investigate the equity impact
by gaining knowledge about how local
communities became engaged around
transport and public space projects; and if
they did do so to address social, economic,
health and equity problems.
Learn more about this initiative
on our website

The impacts from the first World Class

Streets study have begun to be measured by
the City, primarily with a focus on citywide
economic impact from sites in central
business districts, such as Herald and Union
Squares. What has not been measured yet
is how communities became empowered

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NEW YORK

Community Districts with Plaza Projects

Neighborhoods that lack Open Space

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