Credit: Serge Salat, Urban Morphology Institute, based on material produced by Gehl architects.

The team led by Gehl was asked to conceptualize the streetscape with a people first approach. The ‘Shanghai Street Design Guidelines’ are based on the simple and all-encompassing principle that the street is first public space. The guide promotes the street as a streetscape for people, analysed and planned for across the city, district, block, neighbourhood, street and individual human scales. The guide breaks the principle of one-size-fits-all infrastructure planning to include different street type designs, space and time rationale, and the recognition of different traffic participants. The case study well demonstrates how streets are more than the mere space for traffic. It shows how streets are a fundamental aspect of human life, and how their design affects multiple levels of society. The reading illustrates the unit on people-centred mobility and street design.

Introduction

As a result of the largest rural to urban migration in human history, Chinese cities will be home to over 1 billion people by 2030, representing one of every eight people on earth. How Chinese cities are planned and built will therefore have a huge impact, not only on the lives of a billion people, but the development of the world. In 2016, under the longstanding partnership with Energy Foundation, Gehl and SHUPDRI embarked on co-defining a set of 'Street Design Guidelines' for China’s most populous city. The guidelines aimed to reframe the street, from an infrastructure element to livable public space.

In Shanghai, like many other Chinese cities, the pace of urbanization and the quest for exponential economic growth has led to the prioritization of the street as transport infrastructure. Formerly thriving streets slowly became roads; responsible only for the movement of as many people and goods as possible. Consequently, the humanity and human scale of the street significantly diminished and public life across many of Shanghai’s streets suffered. To counter this effect and in parity with the Shanghai Master Plan (2016-2040) and the City of Shanghai, Gehl was asked to conceptualise the streetscape with a people first approach. And so, the ‘Shanghai Street Design Guidelines’ was developed, the first of its kind in China.

Broadening the scope of the street

The ‘Shanghai Street Design Guidelines’ are based on the simple and all-encompassing principle that the street is public space. It refers to the streetscape as both a concept (the way we think and approach the planning of streets) and a design (the way we choose and prioritise physical design according to human-centric functionality).

At the conceptual level the guide promotes the street as a streetscape, that must be analysed and planned for across the city, district, block, neighbourhood, street and individual human scales. This moves the concept of the street from a mobility corridor perspective, to the street as the foundation for public life, public health, for cultural and social exchange, and for the promotion of sustainable and liveable lifestyles.

At the design level the guide breaks the principle of one size fits all infrastructure planning to include differential street type design options, space and time rationale, and the recognition of different traffic participants.

To enable customizable design the guide promotes the street at building to building scale, to include block length, façade and ground floor activity profiling, walking and activity space, auxiliary function facility, and traffic facility considerations. Existing best practice in Shanghai is included as inspiration and as a foundation for the further development of its design strategies and principles.

A lasting Influence

In China, Shanghai, and likewise around the world, authorities are taking an increased responsibility and proactive approach to create liveable and sustainable mixed-use public space. This premise however, isn’t always translated to real, on the ground change. There remains such a strong momentum behind the sectorial structures that build and maintain our urban systems, and the thinking that accompanies those structures remains embedded. This is born from a time when cities where viewed as functional, singular elements, overlooking the detailed complexity and intricacy between the urban form and its users. To challenge this way of thinking and operating, the ‘Shanghai Street Design Guidelines’ endorses six implementation principles that inform the participation and cooperation between responsible departments; a guide to encourage cross-departmental collaborations of the streetscape. 

The ‘Shanghai Street Design Guidelines’ can be seen and felt at the strategic and governance level, receiving the 1st prize in 2017 for the ‘Shanghai Excellent Urban and Rural Planning and Design Award’, and 5th prize in the 2017 ‘National Planning Document Award’. The guidelines have inspired 20 other major Chinese cities to adopt their own guidelines, addressing many of the same principles and concepts present in the ‘Shanghai Street Design Guidelines’.

Recommendations & Key Moves Toward a Better Public Realm

The collective evidence gathered by the PSPL formed the basis for Gehl’s strategic recommendations. These comprised of twelve key moves across four themes: Transportation, Public Life, the Built Environment, and Climate Resilience. These themes provided a clear rationale and coherent structure to base future planning strategy and decisions and ultimately catalyse long-term change.