Soft City

“In Soft City, David Sim draws from his great experience working on projects on all continents and in all cultures. You will benefit from his outstanding ability to see, to observe, and to reflect upon the scenes from life and cities. Soft City is an important addition to the growing literature on people-friendly architecture and city planning. Indeed, architecture and city planning need to be quite a bit more soft. Here is a good place to start.”–Adapted from the foreword by Jan Gehl“Soft City is an engaging and visually interesting book for those interested in creating a more human urban landscape…Sim provides a passionate and updated appeal for a messier, more complex, and more human urban experience. He places people at the center of their own urban story, urging us not to retreat into the isolation of our high-rise apartments but rather to seek and build communities that nurture and enrich our lives together.”– “Carolina Planning Journal”“Rather than a book you sit down and read, Soft City is a book that invites you to explore what it has to offer. It is highly visual, filled with primary colours, useful case studies, original ideas, inspiring photographs, and helpful graphics. As such, it is highly recommended that you forgo the e-book version and get yourself a physical copy.”– “Spacing”

Architect David Sim is partner and creative director at Gehl, where he has worked for more than 15 years. He has developed citizen-engagement tools and a people-first approach to planning and flexible frameworks for development. David is an accomplished educator, teaching all over the world. He spent seven years at Lund University reforming architectural education towards a more holistic approach. He has worked on numerous plans from transit areas in Tokyo to an urban planning framework for city recovery in Christchurch, New Zealand after the 2011 earthquake, and is currently working on a masterplan for St Saveur, a new part of Lille in France.