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The Human Scale

Year 2012
Runtime 77 mins

Our cities are operating against a ticking time bomb. Fifty per cent of the world’s population currently lives in urban areas, but over the next 40 years that number will nearly double. There isn’t enough time to build the infrastructure we need, but revolutionary Danish city planner Jan Gehl says even the largest megacities must be re-thought and redesigned on “the human scale.”

According to Gehl, city planning took on a very specific direction starting in the 1950s: “bird shit architecture.” Driven by the rapid influx of cars, cities were designed to look good from a plane, ignoring the needs of humans below—needs that can only be observed at eye level.

A critical view on the way we build and use the cities we live in, The Human Scale travels around the world to explore how Gehl’s vision of the human megacity—intimate, lively, safe, sustainable and healthy—is being implemented in places like New York, Chongqing, and Christchurch today.

Countries

Denmark
Director
Andreas M. Dalsgaard
Producer
Signe Byrge Sørensen
Cinematographer
Heikki Färm, F.S.C. Adam Philp, DFF. Manuel Claro, DFF. René Strandbygard, Casper Høyberg, DFF
Editor
Søren B. Ebbe, Nicolas Servide Staffolani