Contact us

People & Public Spaces: A Study for the City of Munich

Future proofing Munich’s public spaces

Sector

Civic & Public

Region

Europe

Timespan

2022-2023

Credit: Jan Antonin

Germany’s most densely populated city, Munich asked Gehl to conduct its first ever city-wide study on User Patterns in Public Space. The study revealed the city’s prominent locations and uses, key conflicts and barriers, and civic needs. Recommended actions were proposed to help ensure the public realm serves the best interests of the city’s people long into the future.

Munich is famed for its beer gardens enjoyed by locals and visitors alike. Credit: Sarah Donovan
Everyday spaces provide opportunities for a range of activities as people go about their ‘daily doings’ as Jan Gehl would say! Credit: Gehl

Residents at the center of public space planning

Bavaria’s capital, and Germany’s third most populous city with 1.6 million urban residence (6.4 million in it’s metropolitan area), Munich is revered as a great city for people, even topping the Monocle Livable Cities ranking in 2018. With predicted demographic changes, the city looked ar the role of public space in ensuring an accessible, relevant and inviting city for the future. Following an extensive data collection process by the city, Gehl was called to analyse findings, uncovering the user patterns of public space across Munich.

The analysis mixed qualitative and quantitative findings with spatial context data to devise the everyday behavioural patterns of people. Amongst the conclusions was a recognition of the importance of the urban public spaces – the streets, squares and corners (rather than only the big green spaces), that people primarily use the public spaces in their resident neighbourhood, and that the basic, everyday facilities, such as public toilets, clean urban furniture, and places to sit remain crucial to people’s use and perception of the public realm.

This report provides a shared language and stories of Munich’s public space use that can be used in the context of further urban development planning and preparations for the expected demographic changes.

Credit: Gehl

‘People-first’ includes you

Interested in learning more about our projects or connecting with one of our experts? We’re here to help.

Get in touch