(Denmark, 83 min.)
Dir. Andreas Dalsgaard
Programme: Rule
Breakers and Innovators (International Premiere)
How much time do you spend in traffic? A child of the Ottawa
suburbs, I can’t even fathom the hours of my life that I lost sitting in
traffic. Isolated housing might seem like a nice, quiet, and safe environment
to raise a kid, but a lot has changed since the boon of the suburbs several
decades ago. The Human Scale, a smart
talking heads doc by Andreas Dalsgaard, explains how patterns in human
behaviour have shifted in recent years in terms of placement and habitat. We
know more about the ideal living situations of gorillas than our own species,
one expert notes.
Danish architect Jan Gehl, however, made some forward-thinking studies about humans and their environments. Typical urban studies, Gehl notes in the film, focused primarily (if not solely) on traffic flow. The priority of urban design was not to create the best living environment for humans, but to create the best scenarios so we could all drive ourselves from Point A to Point B as efficiently as possible. The ideal city moved from the European style living, where people live in proximity to where they work and play, to the North American suburban style, where people drove from outside the city and all converged at the centre for work and then made the nightly exodus to the land of strip malls and TVs broadcasting “Dancing with the Stars.” That style, Gehl notes, just doesn’t work anymore.
The Human Scale
examines the shift in consciousness of the relationship between humans and
public space. Gehl explains that a better city design could be devised by
studying the behaviours of humans themselves: how do people, rather than cars,
flow through the streets? How would they use the public space that’s clogged by
traffic congestion and parked cars? Gehl and various other architects,
academics, and activists explain that a shift away from isolated living and a
renewed focus on increased communal space creates a much healthier and
efficient city.
The Human Scale
looks at the necessity of re-evaluating urban design in five chapters. Each
chapter focuses on a city— including New York, Copenhagen, Dhaka, Chongqing,
and Christchurch—and looks at how each city has adapted or failed to adapt
realistically to the demands of its growing population. New York, for example,
made the bold move away from traffic flow—busy streets and honking horns seems
like such an important character trait of the city—and instead emphasized
pedestrian traffic and community by redesigning Broadway and Times Square as a
communal space. The result looks far more inviting. (Any New Yorkers want to
add a yay or nay to debate over the Times Square redesign?)
Other cities, such a Melbourne, changed by recognizing a
greater ideological shift among the population. One urban planner notes that
Melbourne's suburban housing seems like the ideal dream for young couples… a
decade ago. Now, though, the suburbs simply don’t seem like a viable option
since they’re an ideal that relies on cheap gas. Cheap gas doesn’t exist
anymore, so a shift back to centralized living is the better economic plan. It’s
the healthier, sunnier, friendlier one, too, as ensuing studies report that
human behaviour and mental health is improving.
The Human Scale
smartly avoids lofty idealism and academic nitpicking. The ideas offered by the
talking heads are all viable options for reclaiming public space and reframing
how we think about the needs of cities. The final chapters of the film shrewdly
look at the possibility of starting over, as a study of Dhaka notes the
potential social collapse that could arise by focusing on the needs of the
minority of the rich (re: more expressways and parking pass) at the expense of
the needs of the working class majority (re: public transit and accessible
living). The situation, one urban planner notes, is that continued emphasis on
cars and on western living will have cities “heading to a chaos created by
themselves.”
The Human Scale is
sure to voice many of the concerns that urban dwellers have with cities that
seem content on riding the gravy train. Public space, low rise housing, and
accessible services seem more useful than extra parking or more congested
streets. Wouldn’t life be better if we sat together in cafés instead of shoulder-to-shoulder
in traffic?
Rating: ★★★★ (out of ★★★★★)
Rating: ★★★★ (out of ★★★★★)
The Human Scale Screens:
Saturday, April 27 – 4:30 at TIFF Bell Lightbox 2
Sunday, May 5 – 9:00 pm at the ROM
Please visit www.hotdocs.ca for more info on films, tickets, and showtimes.
UPDATE: The Human Scale screens in Ottawa Nov. 14 at the Mayfair Theatre hosted by the Urban Forum Canada and the Royal Danish Embassy. Click here for details.
-It also screens at The ByTowne Nov. 19-21.
Please visit www.hotdocs.ca for more info on films, tickets, and showtimes.
UPDATE: The Human Scale screens in Ottawa Nov. 14 at the Mayfair Theatre hosted by the Urban Forum Canada and the Royal Danish Embassy. Click here for details.
-It also screens at The ByTowne Nov. 19-21.