Gehl Architects UN Global Compact COP 2010

UNITED NATIONS GLOBAL COMPACTGEHL ARCHITECTS | COMMUNICATION ON PROGRESS 2010

Gehl Architects · Urban Quality Consultants · Gl. Kongevej 1, 4.tv · 1610 København V · Danmark · www.gehlarchitects.dk2

GLOBAL COMPACT

UN Global Compact aligns business operations and strategies everywhere with ten universally accepted principles in the areas of human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption. By doing so, business, as a primary driver of globalization, can help ensure that markets, commerce, technology and finance advance in ways that benefit economies and societies everywhere.

As social, political and economic challenges (and opportunities) — whether occurring at home or in other regions — affect business more than ever before, many companies recognize the need to collaborate and partner with governments, civil society, labour and the United Nations.

This ever-increasing understanding is reflected in the Global Compact's rapid growth. With over 8700 corporate participants and other stakeholders from over 130 countries, it is the largest voluntary corporate responsibility initiative in the world.

Through a wide spectrum of specialized workstreams, management tools, resources, and topical programs, the UN Global Compact aims to advance two complementary objectives:

1. Mainstream the ten principles in business activities

around the world

2. Catalyze actions in support of broader UN goals,

including the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)

By doing so, business, as the primary agent driving globalization, can help ensure that markets, commerce, technology and finance advance in ways that benefit economies and societies everywhere and contribute to a more sustainable and inclusive global economy.

The UN Global Compact is not a regulatory instrument, but rather a voluntary initiative that relies on public accountability, transparency and disclosure to complement regulation and to provide a space for innovation.

Launched in July 2000, the United Nations (UN) Global Compact is both a policy platform and a practical framework for companies that are committed to sustainability and responsible business practices.

Gehl Architects · Urban Quality Consultants · Gl. Kongevej 1, 4.tv · 1610 København V · Danmark · www.gehlarchitects.dk 3

HUMAN RIGHTS

Principle 1: Businesses should support and respect the protection of internationally proclaimed human rights; andPrinciple 2: make sure that they are not complicit in human rights abuses.

LABOUR

Principle 3: Businesses should uphold the freedom of association and the effective recognition of the right to collective bargaining;Principle 4: the elimination of all forms of forced and compulsory labour;Principle 5: the effective abolition of child labour; andPrinciple 6: the elimination of discrimination in respect of employment and occupation.

The UN Global Compact asks companies to embrace, support and enact, within their sphere of influence, a set of core values in the areas of human rights, labour standards, the environment and anti-corruption

ENVIRONMENT

Principle 7: Businesses should support a precautionary approach to environmental challenges;Principle 8: undertake initiatives to promote greater environmental responsibility; andPrinciple 9: encourage the development and diffusion of environmentally friendly technologies.

ANTI-CORRUPTION

Principle 10: Businesses should work against corruption in all its forms, including extortion and bribery.

An integral part of the UN Global Compact commitment are the individual members Communication on Progress (COP). Gehl Architects joined the UN Global Compact in 2008, and this document is our first COP.


GEHL ARCHITECTS – IN BRIEF

THE HUMAN DIMENSION

Gehl Architects - Urban Quality Consultants is a consulting firm offering expertise in the fields of architecture, urban design and city planning. Our work is based on the human dimension – the built environment’s effect on social interaction between people in urban design. We consider the lively and widely used public realm to be one of the most important keys to quality in cities.

We develop solutions based on detailed analysis of the existing social and built context in the form of public life and public space surveys. Thus our design and planning solutions are based on a comprehensive understanding of people’s use of public space and the way people experience urban quality.

RESEARCH AS THE FOUNDATION

The work of Gehl Architects is based on Professor Jan Gehl’s 40 years of extensive research on life in public spaces. This research deals with the many factors that influence public life and public space and how people use it. Although physical aspects of humans such as our senses and the way we walk and sit are timeless, we continue our research to further develop our knowledge regarding how the physical environment influences social interaction.

The initial research was published in Professor Jan Gehls 1971 book, Life Between Buildings, that continues to be a widely used handbook on the relationship between public spaces and social life in cities and has been translated into more than 25 languages. Through the years we have published a number of books, reports and articles that document the research, the theories, the methods and the work including many Public Space Public Life Studies carried out in cities all over the world.


OUR BASE IS COPENHAGEN, OUR TEAM IS MULTIDISCIPLINARY

Our base is Copenhagen, a city we have collaborated with, studied and worked in for more than 40 years. Our large scale Public Space Public Life Studies in Copenhagen in 1968, 1986, 1995 and 2005 have provided Copenhagen with a unique insight and documentation of the public life and a substantial knowledge of what works and what doesn’t work when it comes to making cities for people. In great part based on this research, Copenhagen has become one of the worlds most people friendly cities and a global leader when it comes to pedestrians and cycling.

Our interdisciplinary team of 35 people include architects, urban designers, landscape architects, graphic designers, sociologists, anthropologists and cultural theorists. Additionally, Gehl Architects employ several senior consultants each internationally recognized experts within their field. The management consists of two partners, Professor Jan Gehl and Helle Søholt, three directors and a number of associates. The office consists of three teams – Gehl Institute, Gehl Cities and Gehl Studio.


The Institute team builds capacity and empowers individuals, communities, institutions and organizations through teaching, knowledge-sharing activities and communication that focus on change-of-mindset towards making cities for people. The services are provided through lectures, seminars, symposia and workshops. The Institute team also provides project reviews, direct city and client consultancy and other forms of advocacy work on a global basis. The clients are both public bodies and institutions on a state, regional and local level as well as non-governmental organizations, foundations and other entities all over the world that work to promote people-friendly and sustainable city planning. The Institute team have worked in locations such as Copenhagen, Helsingborg, Rio de Janeiro, Mexico City and Kunsan.

GEHL INSTITUTE BUILDING CAPACITY AND EMPOWERMENT

GEHL CITIESPROVIDING INTELLIGENCE TO MAKE CITIES BETTER

The Cities team work to make existing cities better by providing politicians, city administrators and other decision-makers with the much needed data on the many factors that influence public life and public space in cities and how people use it. Gehl Cities work grows directly from Jan Gehl’s 40 years of extensive research on life in public spaces. The Cities team not only provides systematic data through internationally recognized methods but also produces recommendations for concrete improvements that the cities can engage in. The clients are primarily cities, of all sizes and from all over the world, that want to create a more people-friendly environment. The Cities team have carried out projects in cities such as Copenhagen, Oslo, Stockholm, Malmö, London, New York, Sydney, Melbourne, Istanbul, Chennai and Chongqing.

The Studio team develop masterplans and design solutions for existing cities as well as new cities and city areas. The extensive research on public space and public life in cities, carried out by Professor Jan Gehl and Gehl Architects, has produced insights and findings that are easily applied to masterplanning. These findings inform the design solutions with a humanistic core, whether it be in the case of a street or a square or it be on the scale of a neighbourhood or a city quarter. The clients are both private developers as well as cities that want to develop cities and city areas according to a more people-friendly planning philosophy. The Studio team have worked in cities and places such as Vienna, London, Muscat, Los Angeles and Brighton.

GEHL STUDIO MASTERPLANNING WITH PEOPLE IN MIND

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Gehl Architects – Urban Quality Consultants joined the United Nations Global Compact in 2008 and we continue to support the initiative.

Our vision is to create better cities. We aspire to create cities that are lively, healthy, attractive, sustainable and safe - and thereby improve people’s quality of life.

At Gehl Architects we firmly believe that a good city is a city where the human scale in city planning is looked well after. By allowing the aspirations for the public realm to drive the design process, the public spaces can serve as a place for all, while embracing the unique qualities and amenities of the specific urban context: A city should open up, invite and include people, having different activities and possibilities and thereby ensuring multiplicity and diversity.

All the ten principles of the United Nations Global Compact are played out in the public realm and in the city as such. And all the ten principles can be supported by a sustained focus on making the public realm open, accessible, democratic and a place of quality for all people.

Gehl Architects work to create sustainable environments and promote a holistic lifestyle. Our approach to design extends beyond the use of sustainable materials and includes a strong advocacy for walking, cycling and alternative transport – issues that address global challenges such as environmental conditions, social inequality and health.

We aspire to address all the issues, that have a foundation in the United Nations Global Compact initiative, in all of the projects we develop around the world but also through our communication effort, our capacity building as well as in the office amongst ourselves. The core of the United Nations Global Compact initiative is sitting at the heart of the decade long effort of our team to improve the world’s cities and make them places of quality for all people. Hence it is with great pride that we express our continued support to the United Nations Global Compact initiative.

Helle Søholt and Jan GehlFounding PartnersGehl Architects – Urban Quality Consultants

OUR STATEMENT OF CONTINUED SUPPORT

”Whereas neglect has just about extinguished city life in some economically developed countries, pressure from developments has pushed life into extremely adverse conditions in many countries with less developed economies. In both cases making city life viable will require careful work with people’s conditions for walking, bicycling and using the city’s outdoor space.

Core issues are respect for people, dignity, zest for life and the city as meeting place. In these areas, the difference between the dreams and desires of people in various parts of the world are not dramatic. The methods for dealing with these issues are also surprisingly similar, because it all comes down to people, who have the same basic point of departure”.Professor Jan Gehl, Cities for People, Island Press, 2010


HUMAN RIGHTS

GEHL ARCHITECTS INITIATIVES TO IMPLEMENT GLOBAL COMPACT PRINCIPLES IN OUR WORK

LABOUR

Principle 1 Businesses should support and respect the protection of internationally proclaimed human rights. Principle 2 Make sure that they are not complicit in human rights abuses

Our actions Our mission is to create better cities, and we consider the good city as human. We plan and design citities based on the human scale and in respect of people’s daily life. We seek to create lively, safe, sustainable and healthy cities all over the world. We seek to increase quality of life. As a consultancy company who operates internationally, in developed and developing countries, we think it is our responsibility to advocate and uphold the human rights where we work as well as at our office.

Principle 3 Businesses should uphold the freedom of association and the effective recognition of the right to collective bargaining

Principle 4 The elimination of all forms of forced and compulsory labour

Principle 5 The effective abolition of child labour

Principle 6 The elimination of discrimination in respect of employment and occupation.

Our actions When hiring people to work with us or when collaborating with others neither race, color, sex, language, religion, political beliefs or nationality, is used to discriminate. It is solely educational and professional experiences that form the basis for our hiring policy. We furthermore actively seek to engage and embrace across cultures whenever possible. It is free to everyone to enter unions and associations and all our staff have individual contract that are designed according to the Danish work legislation and requirements. We do not employ underage persons.


Principle 7 Businesses should support a precautionary approach to environmental challenges

Principle 8 Undertake initiatives to promote greater environmental responsibility; and

Principle 9 Encourage the development and diffusion of environmentally friendly technologies

Our actions Creating more sustainable cities is part of our core business. We base our vision on Professor Jan Gehl’ 40 years of research on how people and cities interact and have from the beginning approached a more sustainable way of living – environmentally, social and economical – and acknowledged the environmental challenges that we face. Many of our projects aim to engage in environmental questions, aiming to maintain and develop sustainable actions and solutions.

Principle 10Businesses should work against corruption in all its forms, including extortion and bribery.

Our actions We dissociate from corruption of every kind and advocate democratic values, respect and transparency in our work. These values are also an essential part of our relation to partners, clients and employees. We have not been involved in any kind of corruption.

ENVIRONMENT ANTI-CORRUPTION


In Mexico City the average time spent in traffic every day is 2.5 hours, 26 pedestrian are killed every day from traffic injury. The city is facing tremendous challenges to turn itself around to more livable and sustainable solutions that also in terms of mobility respond better to the needs of the many poor inhabitants in the city.

In developing countries access to varied modes of transportation is an important issue, mainly because the infrastructure of many cities are planned more for the cars and less for people it may seem. The mobility aspect is distinct in more poor cities, since large parts of the population often don’t have the opportunity to have a car and therefore need to move about in other ways. By refining and creating sidewalks and bicycle lanes, and improving the public transportation systems we help to ameliorate mobility opportunities for everyone. This mobility oriented development becomes part of creating a more social and democratic city – equal access to mobility.

Gehl Architects worked with The Secretaria de Medio Ambiente del Districto Federal (City of Mexico City, Environmental Department) & Universidad Nacional Autónoma De Méxicoto

EXAMPLE #1: MEXICO CITY/MEXICO – BICYCLE MOBILITY PLAN

to provide consultancy services to advice on a transport improvement project establishing new bicycle infrastructure in Mexico City. The ambition is to establish a total of 300 km of new bicycle tracks over a period of four and a half years.

Gehl Architects consultancy has resulted in the Bicycle Mobility Strategy for Mexico City which integrates a series of initiatives and recommendations and targets all relevant stakeholders, from politicians to city officials to the city staff responsible for the operational level.

The overall vision for the Bicycle Mobility Strategy is to create a more competitive, equitable, and sustainable Mexico City. In this sense, the project is much more than a project providing bicycle paths for cyclists. The project will have a tremendous impact on the daily life of every citizen in Mexico City - how they perceive and experience their city, the quality of air, how they use their time, and where and how they move. The Mobility Strategy Plan for bicycles aims to be part of the overall solution to Mexico City’s challenging situation and will be part of achieving the city’s overall goals.


The Greater Amman Municipality employed Gehl Architects to develop strategies for two pilot projects that could be used as the benchmark for developing inviting public spaces in the city in the future. The two areas, Ashrafiyeh and Sweifieh, respectively a district in the old city and a more modern development, are quite different in character and therefore represent a wide range of design problems to be considered.

We advocate for an increased prioritization of the public space, of pedestrianism and the role of the city space as a meeting place for all city dwellers. By prioritizing the public spaces you improve the social and cultural life in the city. Creating good public spaces invites interaction between people. The two areas in Amman, Ashrafiyeh and Sweifieh, were very traffic dominated and we helped transform them into public spaces that invite human interaction, plus are more safe and healthy environment.

Ashrafiyeh is located in one of the original seven hill districts of the city. The site is an existing undeveloped public space, situated between the largest hospital in the country and a major mosque. This vital, yet otherwise traffic

EXAMPLE #2: AMMAN/JORDAN – URBAN REALM STRATEGY

dominated space has been developed into a people friendly space with focus on recreational activities. In collaboration with Nyvig Traffic Engineers, design guidelines were developed for a car free area with proposed upgrades to buildings surrounding the square, and strategies for organizing traffic including new taxi ranks and bus stops.

In Sweifieh strategies have been developed to create a hierarchy of new urban spaces including a detailed space program for the main pedestrian street. The strategy is based on a detailed life and urban quality analysis of this 5 km2 key retail area that is the most popular international brand shopping street in the city. Wakalat Street opened as a pedestrian street in 2007. In collaboration with Nyvig Traffic Engineers, we developed strategies to reduce through traffic and parking search traffic, as well as for new parking systems while optimizing existing parking options.


Gehl Architects in collaboration with ITDP (Institute for Transport and Development Policy) and local planners in Guangzhou have developed new people oriented principles for the public transportation system and suggested design concepts for new public spaces along the BRT (Bus Rapid Transit). With the implementation in Guangzhou of new public transport the connections to the surrounding neighbourhoods become crucial for the success of the project.

Public transport users arrive, almost without exception, as pedestrians, bicyclist or by other modes of public transport. This is the case all over the world. This means that the quality for people in the transit zones becomes extremely important for the experience and use of the public transport system.

EXAMPLE #3GUANGZHOU/CHINA – MOBILTY ORIENTED DEVELOPMENT

In Guangzhou we worked with local planners to introduce principals for the entire system, as well as for a specific site, emphasizing the importance of putting people in the centre of public space planning surrounding public transport.

The work resulted in a change of the overall strategy and a design concept for a specific site, stating a best practice approach for the public spaces to come.


In 2007, Gehl Architects were engaged to advice on both long-term and short-term improvements in-line with the New York City Mayor’s PlaNYC Initiative: A vision for a “greener, greater NYC” in 2030. A key strategy is to “re-imagine the City’s public realm” and develop an urban environment that is people friendly. Quantitative goals include a 30% reduction of C02 emissions, planting 1 million trees, implementing 300 km of cycle lanes as well as performance standards such as ensuring all citizens are within a 10 minute walk of a public open space, doubling the percentage of cyclist commuters and reducing traffic related deaths by 50%.

Working together with the Mayor’s office, the Department of Transportation as well as business and community stakeholders and interests groups, Gehl Architects were hired to analyse the current condition of NYC’s public realm. The analysis led to a strategic vision aimed at improving conditions for pedestrians

EXAMPLE #4NEW YORK CITY, USA – URBAN REALM & BICYCLE STRATEGY

and promoting a balance between modes of transportation including the implementation of several new public spaces and the completion of a comprehensive bicycle lane network. This work is published in the “World Class Streets” report which is part of an ambitious and far reaching effort to place New York at the forefront of urban development.

The project has so far doubled the amount of bicycle lanes in NYC and as a result twice as many New Yorkers commute to work on bicycle. A seven mile car-free route, known as Summer Streets, from Brooklyn Bridge to Central Park, opened in the summers of 2008 and 2009. Over 300,000 people attended the events, some trying bicycling on city streets for the first time. The event earned rave reviews from New Yorkers and local papers, catching the attention of cities across the world.

3

World Class Streets:Remaking New York City’s Public Realm


Achieving change, whether it be changing the world at large or changing the various smaller worlds of family, friends, relations, workplace or indeed the world of cities, requires that one voices concern and engages in raising awareness of the important issues whenever possible and that one speaks out loud.

Being a private company engaged in changing the cities of the world to better cities for all people we apply several means to both speak out loud and be heard. Speaking out loud in the form of lectures and keynotes, knowledge sharing, capacity building, and communication are some of the means we employ.

SPEAKING OUT LOUD

Speaking out loud has been an integral part of Gehl Architects activities and worldview, as it were, ever since the company was founded in 2000. And before that, speaking out loud formed an integral part of founding partner, Professor Jan Gehls activities, for more than four decades, when teaching and lecturing at the School of Architecture, Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Copenhagen, Denmark, and in academic institutions around the world.

In relation to the United Nations Global Compact initiative we consider the activity of speaking out loud about our commitment to the Global Compact, and the wider implications of the principles within the sphere of influence that is ours, as very important.


world. The basic motivation has been to make knowledge available in a form that would allow local people and decision makers to promote change. The principle of knowledge sharing has been maintained also through the many books and reports that Professor Jan Gehl and Gehl Architects have published over the years, sharing the methods and tools we have developed with everyone interested.

From the very beginning of Professor Jan Gehls academic career in the 1960’s knowledge sharing has formed a basic principle by which to live. Raising the awareness of the way people are treated – or as it were, aren’t treated well at all – in cities around the world and the implications of this on the level of well-being and the quality of life attained has been communicated to decision makers through reports and empirical data and has been shared with cities all around the

KNOWLEDGE SHARING


An integral part of many of the large Public Space Public Life surveys that Gehl Architects have carried out over the years is the cooperation with both schools and universities, as well as with city officials and administrators, in the cities being surveyed. Teaching and educating local people so that they can continue monitoring developments and promote awareness of the issues at stake after we as private consultants have left the city

CAPACITY BUILDING

has been an important goal in our activities ever since the beginning. This teaching activity has since developed into actual capacity building programs that have been employed in many cities in Latin, South and North America, in Asia, Oceania, Europe and in the Middle East. We emphasize to equip people with better means of sustaining and developing their own quality of life.


Connected to our efforts of knowledge sharing and capacity building we also devote much focus to communication in articles, public lectures, and presentations on symposia and conferences, on our webpage and not least through our blog, Making Cities for People. The lecture activity is widespread, and we make an effort to travel to all corners of the world to share our methods and solutions to making cities better for people. We have made it a company policy also to engage in lecturing activities when the immediate reward in terms of fee or new jobs is not necessarily present, but where we sense there is a need

or even a duty to share our knowledge with people. This has brought us to Cape Town, Sao Paolo, Chennai, Guadalajara and many other places in the world, where there is a need to put more focus on treating people well in cities but where the means to achieve this may not be as abundantly present as in many western cities. Our blog-initiative is also used to swiftly share news and knowledge that can contribute to change in terms of better cities for people all over the world.

COMMUNICATION

Gl. Kongevej 1, 4.tv · DK-1610 København V

Tel: +45 32 950 951 · Fax: +45 32 950 958

[email protected] · www.gehlarchitects.dk

Gehl Architects UN Global Compact COP 2010

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