Oliver Schulze, Director, Gehl Architects: People first – putting the public back into the public realm.

The public realm is the social heart of any city, but social activities of all kinds continue to be squeezed out by efforts to accommodate rather than reduce traffic growth. When cities put cars before people the social and economic life the city suffers and no one has the option to opt out of the environmental impacts.

Join us and Oliver Schulze from Gehl Architects at October’s Street Talk for a journey from Copenhagen to the bike lanes of LA – via taco trucks, snowball fights in Times Square, surface parking lots, Starbucks and Disneyland – as we consider how to put the public back into the public realm. What needs to be done to ensure walking down the street or pausing to chat in a local square is a pleasure rather than a chore? What lessons can London learn from recent efforts to prioritise pedestrians in cities across the world, including New York and even car centric Los Angeles?

Upstairs at The Yorkshire Grey, 2 Theobalds Road, WC1X 8PN at 7pm (bar open from 6pm) on 4th October.

Oliver Schulze is director of Gehl Architect’s design studio. He has worked on a diverse portfolio of international public realm design projects ranging from strategic urban planning initiatives at the scale of cities and regions, to the delivery of award-winning public spaces.

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