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PROF. ARCH. JAN GEHL: "IT'S TIME TO HAVE FUN IN THE CITIES, NOT THE CARS"
05 April 2020
The world renowned architect and urbanist Prof. Jan Gehl arrived in Varna for the presentation of his new book "How to Study Public Life", which was published in Bulgarian by Varna Free University.
Earlier in the day, he toured the central part of Varna and shared his vision of the city's development with journalists. A special highlight of the tour was the relief map of the Sea Garden, created by Kristian Ivanov - a student in architecture at VFU "Chernorizets Hrabar". The idea for the map originated in the student laboratory "Varna - a City for People", which was held under the patronage of Prof. Gehl. The Danish urbanist learned about the ancient architecture and history of the maritime capital from Christian Oblakov - alumni of Varna Free University, a local historian and researcher.
For the media Prof. Arch. Jan Gehl thanked Varna Free University for translating and publishing the book "How to Study Public Life". He described it as "software" in urban science and the "hardware" was the previous one: "Cities for People".
"Architecture is the interaction between life and form. It is easy to study form, but it is difficult to understand how life communicates with it," said Prof. Gehl. He has been studying this relationship for the last 50 years.
"It seems impressive to me that the quality of the urban habitat of 'homo sapiens' is so poorly studied as compared to the habitats of gorillas, whales and panda bears in China ... but we know almost nothing about human habitat in the urban environment. The endless number of green buildings does not make a sustainable city," said the world famous urbanist.
"It's time for people to have fun in cities, not cars," he concluded.
The book "How to Study Public Life" will be presented tonight at 5:30 pm at the Graphite Hotel Gallery.
The book was published with the assistance of Holding Varna AD.
