‘That the city would be finally for people’ – Article by Małgorzata Domagała, Gazeta Wyborcza, 23rd of January 2014.

 //  _ idea  //  _ media

The first press release announcing the Year of Jan Gehl.

The article describes the idea of the Year of Jan Gehl and the way of thinking of public space that relates to it, based on the statements of Marcin Skrzypek, member of the Council for Culture of Space:

Why does Lublin need such a year?
– to increase the awareness of the quality of public space. Lublin is now developing very rapidly, but the planning of investments does not include enough attention to thinking about people travelling on foot, has specific phisical parameters which decide which space is hospitable to him which is not.
[…]
We need to demand more
– the Year of Jan Gehl should not be treated as an event, but rather as an inauguration. It’s results in various things that have to be done in at least a decade. The subject of civilizing squres and streets is urgent – there are still made new designs that can be improved.

The illustration of the article is the picture of Jan Kochanowski Square, a broadening of the Narutowicz Street in front of Pobrygidkowski Church. Inspite of it’s downtown location, not everyone does recognize this place, because it had been poorly designed, for example the benches have been set backward to the monument.