扬·盖尔

扬·盖尔（丹麦语：Jan Gehl，1936年9月17日—）是一位丹麦建筑师及城市规划师，致力于通过重新设计都市空间来提升人们的生活品质。

著作

《交往与空间》（中译本：中国建筑工业出版社，2002）

《新城市空间》（中译本：中国建筑工业出版社，2003）

《公共空间·公共生活——哥本哈根1996》（中译本：中国建筑工业出版社，2003）

《人性化的城市》（中译本：中国建筑工业出版社，2010）

荣誉

伊德拉（Edra）场地研究奖

帕特里克·阿伯克罗姆比（sir Patrick Abercrombie）奖，国际建筑师联盟颁发。

荣誉博士学位，爱丁堡的海里亚特一瓦特大学（Heriot-Watt）。

Jan Gehl (born 1936) is a Danish architect and urban design consultant based in Copenhagen. His career has focused on improving the quality of urban life by re-orienting city design towards the pedestrian and cyclist. He is a founding partner of Gehl Architects.

Early life and education

Jan Gehl was born in Denmark in 1936.

He received a BA and then, in 1960, an MA in Architecture from the School of Architecture at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts (KADK) in Copenhagen in 1960.

Career

Architecture and planning

Gehl practised architecture from 1960 to 1966. In 1965, he and his wife Ingrid went to Italy on a scholarship from the New Carlsberg Foundation "to study the everyday use of public spaces and everyday public life in Tuscan and Umbrian cities, and in Rome". Here they were impressed by the human activity in the cities that had not been formally planned. The results of their studies were published in a series of articles in the Danish journal Arkitekten in 1966.

In 1966 he received a research grant from KADK to study "the form and use of public spaces". His book Life between Buildings (1971) reports his studies of public life in public spaces, and develops his theories about how city planning and architecture influence public life.

According to the curators of the 2017 exhibition of Gehl's work at the Danish Cultural Institute, titled Changing Mindsets – Jan Gehl's life of work, his work may be seen as three major phases:

From the mid-1960s: research and theory development

Starting in Copenhagen in the early 1970's: developing and testing methodology in real-life projects

From the 1990s and onwards: Communication and expansion of methods and ideas through books combined with studies for cities across the globe

He co-founded Gehl Architects in 2000 with Helle Søholt, held a partner position until 2011, retired in 2016, but as of October 2026 remains an adviser in the practice. He also continues to undertake speaking engagements.

Gehl has participated in and advised many urban design and public projects around the world:

In 2004 he carried out an important study in to the quality of the public realm in London, commissioned by Central London Partnership and Transport for London, and supported City of Wakefield and the town of Castleford in developing and delivering better public spaces, as part of an initiative known as "The Castleford Project".

In 2007–08 he was hired by New York City's Department of Transportation to re-imagine New York City streets by introducing designs to improve life for pedestrians and cyclists. The DOT used Gehl's work to "directly inform" the implementation of their new urban planning and design policies and projects.

Gehl has been influential in Australia and New Zealand as well, where he prepared Public Life studies for the city centres of Melbourne (1994 and 2004), Perth (1995 and 2009), Adelaide (2002) Sydney (2007), Auckland (2008), Wellington (2004), Christchurch, Launceston and Hobart (2010).

Academia

Gehl was professor of urban planning at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts from 1966 to 2006.

Between 1971 and 1978 he also spent long periods doing research as well as teaching in various countries as a visiting professor.

Influences

Gehl credits the "grandmother of humanistic planning" Jane Jacobs for drawing his attention to the importance of human scale. "Fifty years ago she said – go out there and see what works and what doesn't work, and learn from reality. Look out of your windows, spend time in the streets and squares and see how people actually use spaces, learn from that, and use it".

Gehl married a psychologist, and together they "had many discussions about why the human side of architecture was not more carefully looked after by the architects, landscape architects, and planners" and "set out to study the borderland between sociology, psychology, architecture, and planning".