Cities for people – introduction to the concept of the city by Jan Gehl

Abstract

The article presents the concept of the city by Jan Gehl, which initially indicates the necessity of taking into consideration the basic principles resulting from humanistic thinking about public space and human biological structure in the process of planning our cities. Furthermore, I pay special attention to the fact that the central point of Gehl’s investigations is proxemics, describing mutual spatial relations between people, as well as those between people and surrounding objects. In his theory, Gehl emphasizes such factors as human mobility or human senses because they determine the ways in which people „make use” of their cities. I also analyze his concept in terms of the impact of the quality of public spaces in cities on the relationships that occur within these spaces.