Soft City: Building Density for Everyday Life

Design Theory

18 Feb

In Soft City David Sim, partner and creative director at Gehl, shows how this is possible, presenting ideas and graphic examples from around the globe. He draws from his vast design experience to make a case for a dense and diverse built environment at a human scale, which he presents through a series of observations of older and newer places, and a range of simple built phenomena, some traditional and some totally new inventions.

Sim shows that increasing density is not enough. The soft city must consider the organization and layout of the built environment for more fluid movement and comfort, a diversity of building types, and thoughtful design to ensure a sustainable urban environment and society.

Soft City begins with the big ideas of happiness and quality of life, and then shows how they are tied to the way we live. The heart of the book is highly visual and shows the building blocks for neighborhoods: building types and their organization and orientation; how we can get along as we get around a city; and living with the weather. As every citizen deals with the reality of a changing climate, Soft City explores how the built environment can adapt and respond.

Soft City offers inspiration, ideas, and guidance for anyone interested in city building. Sim shows how to make any city more efficient, more livable, and better connected to the environment.

David Sim

Was Partner and Creative Director at Gehl until 2021. A cornerstone of Gehl’s development, David was responsible for driving much of the office’s Urban Strategy and Master-planning services.

His expertise is visible the world over, leading many of Gehl’s flagship projects including Christchurch’s Earthquake Recovery Plan, Melbourne Metro, Urban Strategies for Buenos Aires, Central Tokyo and Sao Paulo, and Masterplans in Lille, Cologne, Santiago de Chile, and at An Camas Mòr in his native Scotland, amongst many more.

Always merging practice with design research David authored Soft City: Building Density for Everyday Life in 2019. Already with some 20 translations, the book proposes the organization and layout of the built environment for more fluid movement and comfort, a diversity of building types, and thoughtful design to ensure a sustainable urban environment and society.