Jan Gehl: The architect responsible for making Melbourne liveable
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Since the mid 1980s Danish architect Jan Gehl has been helping Melbourne to "turn this miserable scene into one of the most likeable cities in the world".
Mr Gehl has worked all over the world, trying to make cities "people-centred" again.
"We never made the cities to make the cars happy or to make the shopkeepers happy," he told ABC Radio Melbourne.
"We made the cities originally so that people could come together, meet each other and together develop the culture of mankind.
"But in the second part of the past century we've seen very much that the car invasion has taken over and pushed the people out of the cities, making the streets very unappetising and uncharming."
When Mr Gehl visited Melbourne in the mid 1970s he recalled how "utterly dead Melbourne was and how boring the whole place was".
From 1985, streets were closed off to cars, bike paths were built and public meeting spaces were created as Mr Gehl and a Melbourne urban design team made a concerted effort to transform the city.
"And now Melbourne has this fantastic status as being one of the world's most liveable cities," he said.
Gehl working to 'Melbournise' Sydney
For the past 10 years Mr Gehl has been working to help "Melbournise" Sydney.
"It's coming along slowly, George Street has been closed, they are about to introduce trams and they have introduced bicycle lanes," he said.
Mr Gehl said the ability to access natural light in cities was key to making them more liveable.
"In Sydney a lot of high rises have been built and hardly a sun ray goes into the city centre at this point.
"In Melbourne, very cleverly, a corridor, a valley of sunshine has been preserved along Swanston Street and that's very important because access to the sun in the spring and fall is very important so that the city is not overshadowed."
Mr Gehl said the key to making a city more liveable hinged on leadership.
"It's taking a long time and in Melbourne it's been a miracle that it's happened there, it has very much to do with leadership."
Topics: architecture, urban-development-and-planning, community-and-society, government-and-politics, human-interest, melbourne-3000
