Soft City: Building Density for Everyday Life

‘Density’ is a word to be used advisedly in certain circles, lest argument be provoked. While seemingly unavoidable as the global population continues to urbanise, it’s often marked by a focus on the economic and an equal lack of attention to the human impacts.

David Sim, partner and creative director at Gehl, tackles these issues with a philosophy of ‘soft ’, which he describes as relating to concepts such as responsiveness, ecology, comfort and sharing. The book’s eight chapters cover key principles of Sim’s approach in a highly accessible manner, with short but illuminating introductory texts giving way to longer case studies drawn from across the world, which are accompanied by illustrative diagrams and photography. With a foreword by Gehl founder Jan Gehl, Soft City makes for a fascinating and insightful work on a topic that affects us all.