Interactive training workshops to help organizational teams and project partners learn and apply human-scale research and design approaches. We offer comprehensive learning opportunities and technical assistance, including masterclasses, study tours, workshops and training sessions, to broaden a team’s knowledge and expertise across our public life approach and methodologies, urban design best practices, and pressing urban topics.
An analysis of the commercial landscape of a place to uncover key opportunities to develop dynamic and active retail environments. Our team evaluates retail settings, identifies gaps, and provides recommendations to support the long-term vitality of these spaces, with a focus on activating ground floors and encouraging mixed-use developments.
Early activation of a development site to generate public interest, foster community connections, and create new destinations. We implement temporary physical interventions and events to test programming, measure impact, and refine concepts. This ensures that activation initiatives are aligned with the long term vision and urban design for the neighborhood and contribute meaningfully to its future identity.
An exploratory qualitative and quantitative study of a site’s full potential and the challenges that need to be addressed to realize it. We simplify complexity and help you make informed decisions through different scenarios for density, building massing, mobility, public space networks, phasing, and overall development strategy — all tied to the vision and big ideas for the site.
A study to uncover how built environments influence people’s everyday food behaviors. Gehl’s data scientists and urban strategists collect experiential-based data to help you understand neighborhood food systems, how people engage with them, and their role in shaping community health outcomes.
An assessment of emerging technologies and their impact on urban mobility to ensure that strategies both make sense on the ground whilst remaining innovative and future-proof. We track and review evolving mobility trends: autonomous and electric vehicles, charging systems, delivery logistics, and emerging mobility modes, to optimize strategies for long-range planning.
Multi-method research of emerging or completed place-based portfolios and projects to identify social, economic, and environmental impacts and equitable outcomes. We assist you in developing research frameworks, gathering data, and communicating stories that illustrate community benefits of public space investments.
A framework to guide plans, assessments, and decisions for future place activation initiatives and urban developments. We conduct feasibility strategies to help scale pilots into sustainable build-outs by combining cost and resource assessments, stakeholder engagement, and scenario analysis to ensure adaptability in ever-changing contexts.
The translation of urban design work into development guidelines, practical planning documents, and project applications ready for implementation. We ensure regulatory compliance, project continuity, and coherence in vision and urban strategy among authorities, development partners, and consultants. We help you safeguard neighborhood quality throughout the entire development process.
Empowering civic and business leaders to drive positive change within communities and their organizations. We guide leaders in fulfilling their organizational mission and curate a diversity of expertise, tools, and resources to ensure our advisory and solutions go above and beyond the assignment.
A cornerstone of Gehl’s urban design work creating holistic, flexible frameworks for the development of sites of all scales and contexts. We design for vibrant, livable places with a high-quality everyday life by considering public spaces, landscape, buildings, land use, mobility, sustainability, and more. Our collaborative design process enables you to make strategic decisions on the potential of a site during the entire development lifecycle.
A playbook outlining clear roadmaps for how agencies can collaborate with each other, public officials, and communities. We provide organizations step-by-step guidance for project managers, including templates and tools to explain why, when, and how to facilitate and lead multi-party engagements.
A strategy to transform urban environments into places that promote preventative healthcare and health equity. We develop guidelines, public realm plans, strategies, and policy recommendations for physical activity, mental health, social infrastructure, and child-friendly cities. Our team of health experts and urban strategists help you identify local partners to test and implement urban health interventions and evaluate their impact and scalability.
Developing mobility plans for new developments as an integral component to any Gehl masterplan. From project launch, we include mobility considerations to the same regard as built structure specifications. We primarily focus on street design, parking, and how active human-scale facades can promote public life, walking and cycling. To ensure compatibility with peripheral neighborhoods, our work always considers existing amenities, routes, and transit connections.
The development of public-facing programs to create places that are meaningful and maximize shared value. We align business goals with societal ambitions to help you identify creative use patterns, focusing on the physical, cultural, and social identities of a place to support its ongoing development.
A place-based strategy to help organizations achieve your mission. We provide technical assistance by refining processes, optimizing funding, and setting actionable metrics to turn goals into tangible, place-based outcomes that can inform investment strategies and programs. Our tools and training workshops strengthen your organization’s capacity to drive lasting, measurable change in neighborhoods and communities.
A deep dive into walking, cycling, and other micromobility solutions for cities to foster a vibrant and engaging public life. From strategy, to network design, high quality bike parking facilities, or street specific solutions, we ensure an enhanced experience for pedestrians, cyclists, and users of micromobility devices in highly frequented areas.
A set of methods designed to facilitate participation among diverse parties. We assist you in developing engagement strategies that combine workshop facilitation, on-site engagement, event activations, observational analysis, storytelling, and targeted use of social media. We uplift the voices of community members and identify key ways for their input to contribute to decision making for long-range planning.
The design of public spaces and landscape architecture that balances eye-level experiences, functionality, and climate adaptation with quality of life to create inviting and inclusive public spaces. From small-scale public realm interventions to street design, parks, squares, and district-wide landscape design, we translate vision, data, experiences, and insights into designs for life.
A strategy that defines the hierarchy, character, and purpose of public spaces for a balanced and integrated public realm. We shape how these spaces will be experienced — at eye-level — blending function, density, connections, and ecology into a cohesive vision. Gehl identifies key activation areas and delivers concept designs, pilot recommendations, and action plans for implementation and evaluation.
The mapping of physical spaces and social networks to develop policies, designs, and strategies that foster inclusive, thriving communities. We create research frameworks and plans that assist community organizations, urban designers, and policy makers in identifying existing social infrastructure or gaps, and in determining how it can be supported to advance health equity, climate resilience, and economic opportunity.
Designs and guidance for the transformation of streets into people-friendly places. We create mobility solutions for all urban streets — from highly congested streets to pedestrianized laneways and recreational paths. Prioritizing greenery, accessibility, efficiency, and a thriving public life, we integrate multimodal transit options into cohesive street designs.
The design of multimodal transport stations as vibrant neighborhood hubs. We shape strategies for transit hubs through public life surveys and movement studies, to design stations to be more than just functional. Moving beyond Transit-Oriented Development, we adopt a Neighborhood-Oriented Transit approach, creating stations as public spaces that serve local communities and commuters alike.
A guideline that sets city-wide standards for urban design or mobility, including bike lanes, public art, furnishings, and more. We help you align these standards with city-wide strategies and policies, and provide support in incorporating them into public codes. Through training sessions, we bring diverse stakeholders together around a shared vision for successful implementation.
The development of cutting edge digital tools to source people’s lived experiences in neighborhoods and cities. We collaborate closely with urban data providers to collect information tailored to your research goals, customizing each new tool to your project- and site-specific needs.
A framework to guide the development of mobility networks within cities ensuring a close integration between mobility and public space considerations. We collaborate with technical experts in key areas such as ITS optimization of intersections and commercial city life to create actionable, human-centered mobility solutions.
The continuous refinement of early ideas and ‘on the ground’ solutions are key to future-proof today’s urban development. We help our clients research, test and iterate urban strategy and design on-site, whilst continuously measuring what works (or not) via Gehl’s data analysis tools. This information identifies gaps and directs you towards the right solutions and scalable impact.
An observational analysis of a neighborhood or a city’s public life behaviors and perceptions, combined with a spatial assessment of buildings, streets, and public space elements. We gather data to uncover the impact of the public realm on people’s everyday experiences, providing a framework for continuous evaluation and improvement.
A vision for the development of a place, neighborhood, or new district rooted in Gehl’s life-first design principles. We help you refine big ideas and design drivers to craft a cohesive forward-thinking vision that integrates development ambitions with site conditions, challenges, and future potential. The vision serves as a guiding star to align all stakeholders throughout the development process.