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"Soft Edges" in Residential Streets
"Soft Edges" in Residential Streets
To cite this article: Jan Gehl (1986) “Soft edges” in residential streets, Scandinavian Housing and Planning Research, 3:2,
89-102, DOI: 10.1080/02815738608730092
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Scandinavian Housing and Planning Research 3:89-102, 1986
point towards a growing importance of lively residential streets for formal and informal social
activities. This article discusses a number of conditions for supporting this function of
residential streets. The focus is primarily on the importance of creating "soft edges" by way of
frontyards/forecourts/porches in order to provide better opportunities for staying in the public
spaces for residents of all ages. Studies of residential street life in Australia, Canada, and
Scandinavia are presented to support the conclusion that "soft edges" may be a most
important way of promoting an active life in present-day residential streets.
School of Architecture, Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Kongens Nytorv 1, DK-1050
Copenhagen K, Denmark.
been made by William H. Whyte and the Project for Public Spaces in New York
(Whyte, 1980).
As regards residential streets, surveys focussing on childrens' play patterns,
use of benches, use of porches and front yards have emphasized the above
conclusions that life and activities constitute an important and highly valued
quality in these areas as well (Gehl, 1980 a).
From the study presented here and similar studies from other residential areas,
the existence of a lively residential street, a space frequently used by other
people, a place where people and various activities are at hand for participation,
for inspiration or just for passtive contacts—seeing and hearing—thus appears to
be widely and highly valued. The opposite side of the coin—lifelessness, unsa-
fety, isolation, boredom, no playmates, etc.—is not given a positive value.
A complete range of arguments, theories and surveys emphasizing the virtues
of a certain amount of life in residential streets rather than lifelessness will not be
put forward—or attempted in any detail—in this context. It makes reasonable
sense to let the elusive character of street life with its thousands and thousands of
large and small events speak for itself.
This perhaps ought to be augmented, however, by referring to a number of
studies showing how feelings of territoriality and belonging can be related directly
to the degree of use and life in residential streets (Appleyard and Lintell, 1972).
This again is closely linked to the feeling of safety as v/ell as actual protection
from violence and vandalism (Crime Prevention Board, Denmark, 1984).
ble than previously—and houses closer together. Another change is the increas-
ing number of elderly people. This group constitutes almost 20 percent of the
population in Scandinavia and the group is characterized by having considerable
amounts of free time and many years of good health and active life centered
around the residential situation. No single group has been found to use public
spaces and lively streets more than this expanding group of old people—provided
of course that public spaces of suitable quality are available.
(c) Changes in the character of working situations. A great number of people
will have more monotonous, less satisfying and less creative work due to automa-
tization and technological developments. This tends to shift the emphasis from
work place to residential area for a number of creative and social activities.
id) Finally, technological and other developments tend to reduce the total
number of working hours needed by society. Thus time and energy are freed from
the working situation and accordingly more emphasis placed on residential areas.
In sum, these changes amount to the fact that more people (living in still
smaller households) have more energy, resources and time available in the
residential areas—where a number of social and creative needs will have to find
new outlets.
Deriving directly from these considerations there are more and more recom-
mendations in Denmark regarding the need to change residential patterns towards
denser housing areas with a strong emphasis on lively outdoor spaces and
community buildings (Crime Prevention Board, Denmark, 1984).
However, the theories, arguments and government recommendations are one
thing. Quite another is to investigate whether trends in these directions can
actually be found. It is reasonable to presume that various types of public spaces
gain increased importance in this new situation, thus creating an empirically
verifiable increase in the use of public spaces.
Surveys in a number of central Copenhagen streets and squares carried out in
1968 and again in 1983 clearly show that the use of these spaces has increased
markedly during the 15 years in between (though the population of Copenhagen
has decreased). They are used by more people and there is a much wider range of
activities. Furthermore the activities have taken an obvious swing towards more
creative and expressive activities such as music, theatre, political and ideological
groups, jugglers, entertainers and other performers (Gehl, 1984).
92 J. Gehl SHPR 3 (1986)
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Fig. 1. Street studies in Melbourne 1976. Design details, dimensions, and especially the opportunities for staying/sit-
ting; in the edge zones alongside the street, were found to be major factors influencing the street life. (Brack, Gehl
and Thornton, 1977.)
On a smaller scale—in the local areas, the residential streets and suburban
housing areas—a similar trend can be detected. The shared public spaces have
been found to be extensively used in these newer areas where a good quality of
the outdoor area is provided (Bundgaard, Gehl and Skoven, 1982).
In this context some of the problems concerning the creation of lively residen-
tial streets will be discussed.
F/g. 2. Street studies in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada 1977. The results came very close to the findings from the
Australian streets.
The residential street is generally characterized by the fact that only a limited
number of persons live on each street and are potential users of the street. Thus
with a relative low density of dwellings and few persons in the residential areas,
the only way in which life in the streets can be substantially enhanced will be to
emphasize the duration of the stays.
Children spend time playing in the street—if the street is suitable for playing.
Adults spend time in the street—if they have something to do and there are places
to sit down. These factors are thus very important.
Traffic, i.e. people going or driving to and from their dwellings, does not mean
much in this context, because the time spent in the street is in these cases very
short—20 to 30 or maybe up to 90 seconds per trip.
A 1977 study of 12 residential streets with terraced or town houses in and
around Waterloo, Ontario emphasizes the importance of "the time spent" in the
streets as the key factor for measuring livelyness (Gehl, 1980 a, 1980 &).
A direct observation study of the day-time activities in the 12 streets found that
52 percent of all activities occuring in the streets were related to traffic—coming
and going—while the rest concerned people talking, staying or doing something
or children playing.
It was further found that the traffic activities generally are of very short
duration. Parking and going into a house lasted between 20 and 30 seconds.
Walking to a house only took between one and two minutes, measured as time
spent in the street.
94 J. Gehl SHPR 3 (1986)
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Fig. 3. Street A. Parking and a "nature strip" lines the street. There are hard edges alongside the houses, and
virtually no activities in the street on a number of perfect summer days. The adjoining interior courtyards and the
small balconies were not used either. The conclusion is that lack of quality leads to almost no activity.
On the other hand, talking, staying, doing something, or playing, tended to last
much longer. (Average duration of single activities was: talking 3 minutes,
sta\üng 11 minutes, doing 11 minutes, playing 13 minutes.)
By combining the number of persons with the time spent on the various
activities it was found that 89 percent of all "life in the streets" involved talking,
staying, doing and playing activities, while coming and going accounted for a
mere 11 percent ofthat "life".
In conclusion, life in the residential streets is thus very much a question of the
residents' opportunities for staying, for doing, and for playing in the streets.
Physical elements which can directly support these "long duration" activi-
ties—and thus very directly affect "life in the streets"—have been investigated in
a study of 17 streets in and around Melbourne (Brack, Gehl and Thornton, 1977).
Major findings from this study—based on observation techniques—were that
70 percent of all "long duration" activities encountered were found to occur in
the semi-private front yards, while only 30 percent occurred on the pavements or
elsewhere in the streets. Another important finding concerned the actual layout
and detailing of the frontyards. Substantial differences concerning the use of
frontyards were found to be clearly related to detafls in design and dimensions.
SHPR 3 (1986) "Soft edges" in residential streets 95
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Fig. 4. Street B parallell to Street A. Small frontyards of very useful dimensions for all the ground floor flats and a
remarkably high level of activity in the street and—especially—in the frontyards. The total amqunt of activities in
Street B was found to be 21 times higher than in Street A.
Front yards which were too narrow or otherwise without ample opportunities for
sitting were considerably less used. Thus to be useful for supporting life in the
streets the front yards have to be conductive to long duration activities, a quality
very well developed in the majority of Australian forecourts bordering the streets
of traditional terrace houses.
Taken as a whole this study strongly pointed to the semi-private front
yards—the "soft edges"—as a physical element of great importance for support-
ing life in the streets.
Further insight into these issues was gained in 1980-81 through a number of
comparative studies involving comparable settings in greater Copenhagen. That
survey will be exemplified by presenting two of the cases studied.
» PERSON ON
BALCONY
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Fig. 6. Street B. A nice summer evening by the entrance door. Children as well as grownups from the
upper stories use the street much more than in Street A because Street B is much more lively and
interesting. Life between the houses is a self-reinforcing process: People come were people are.
The major difference between the two streets is that street B has front gardens
belonging to the ground-floor flats, creating a "soft", usable edge in the public
space, while street A has a "hard" edge and no opportunities for staying in the
street. Both areas have interior courts. Those in street A are of appallingly poor
quality, those in street B of a reasonable and useful quality.
Street life in these two streets was studied simultaneously during a number of
summer days in 1980 (Bundgaard, Gehl and Skoven, 1982). The techniques used
were direct observations and recordings of all activities occurring in the streets,
courts, and balconies from dawn to dusk.
Street A with a very poor physical environment providing hardly any opportu-
nities for outdoor stays either for children or for grownups was found to be
almost deserted throughout the study days (which were really fine summer days,
an opportunity seldom ignored by the Danes). The conclusion is that when the
physical layout is too poor, the majority of people simply do not leave their
homes, while a minority, a more energetic group go off to other areas, beaches,
parks and so on.
With front yards giving it a much better quality and detail, street B was found
to be very lively on the very same days. All told, the activity (total number of
minutes spent) in street B was found to be 21 times higher than that generated by
the same number of households in street A. The more detailed findings showed
7-868802
98 J. Gehl SHPR 3 (1986)
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Fig. 7. Hyldespjældet is a "low dense" housing area south of Copenhagen with excellent private
backgardens, but no opportunities for staying outside in front of the houses.
that the front gardens were widely used by adults. They spent much time there
sitting, eating, reading, knitting etc., taking in the street scene and the sunshine in
the process. The children (as was also found in the Australian and Canadian
studies) were rarely in the front gardens. Nearly all of them were on the
sidewalks and in the street proper. Furthermore, the high activity level in and
around the front gardens was seen to draw quite a few people from the upper two
storeys down to the street scene. Thus, "where people are, people will come".
The high level of overall activity in this street was not merely caused by more
people coming out into the public space, but especially by the fact that they spent
much more time out there because facilities for staying and sitting were provided.
This underlines the important fact that "activity" in a street is always a
product of time spent and numbers present, which again underlines that life in
public spaces is very much dependent on the facilities provided for staying there.
The case of street A underlines that if quality is too low, no one will use the
public spaces unless they have to. Coming and leaving are just about the only
events occurring. The case of street B underlines the enormous difference
suitable arrangements for staying can make to a street. The inhabitants of all
generations are provided with a place to go and somewhere to stay.
Furthermore, they can bring out their various domestic activities into the
street. These opportunities were at hand in street B, and they were found to be
extensively used.
SHPR 3 (1986) "Soft edges" in residential streets 99
Fig. 8. Galgebakken is a "low dense" housing area south of Copenhagen with excellent private
backgardens as well as a very carefully designed frontyard facing the access lane.
These findings indicate that many people actually appreciate being in and using
the public spaces, and being in touch with life in these areas provided they are
given an acceptable physical arrangement. In this study it was again evident that
the edge zones with activity opportunities were used especially frequently by
adults—a group which in most housing areas is neglected in terms of opportuni-
ties for staying or doing anything in the shared spaces.
It is indeed interesting to note that when these opportunities were provided,
they were found to be quite intensively used. It merits attention that in academic
discussions the semi-private front yards have been accused of "drawing people
away from the public areas and into the realm of privacy".
Indeed, reality was found to be almost entirely the opposite. The existence of
semi-private transition zones was found to assist the inhabitants in passing from
their private homes to the public realm. The forecourts helped the inhabitants to
"take the first and most difficult step" from their homes to the shared spaces.
Green Area
Streets and
squares 33 10 S
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Entrance 10 t W////A
path Green Area
Streets and squares
24 (4 [2 22
Front
garden Entrance path
Back
so •2
garden
GALGEBAKKEN HYLDESPJÆLDET
REFERENCES
Appleyard, D. and M. Lintell (1972) "The Environmental Quality of City Streets: The Residents
Viewpoint", Journal of American Institute of Planners 38: 84-101.
• Brack, F., J. Gehl and S. Thornton (1977) The Interface between Public and Private Territories in
Residential Areas. Melbourne: Melbourne University.
Bundgaard, A., J. Gehl and E. Skoven (1982) "Bløde kanter i boligområder—sammenfatning og
konklusion" (Soft Edges in Housing Areas—Summary and Conclusion), Arkitekten 84: 421-438.
Crime Prevention Board (1984) Kriminalpræventive overvejelser om miljøplanlægning. (Crime Pre-
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vention Aspects of Environmental Planning.) Copenhagen: Crime Prevention Board (Notat 13).
Gehl, J. (1966) "Mennesker i Byer" (People in Towns), Arkitekten 68: 425-443.
— (1968) "Mennesker till fods" (Pedestrians), Arkitekten 70: 429-446.
— (1980 a) Livet mellem husene. (Life between the Buildings.) Copenhagen: Arkitektens Forlag.
— (1980b) "The Residential Street Environment", Built Environment 6: 51-61.
— (1984) "The Downfall and the Renaissance of Public Spaces", University of Colorado, Boulder,
Proceedings, 4 Pedestrian Design Conference.
Whyte, W. H. (1980) Social Life in Small Urban Spaces. Washington: The Conservation Foundation.