The “plinths” of the city are the ground floors that negotiate between the inside and the outside, between the public and the private: this is the city at eye level. Plinths are extremely important for the urban experience, which in turn is an important driver for the urban economy. The plinths might cover only 10% of the building, but determine 90% of the experience.
Public space quality is the backbone of a sustainable city. Great streets, places where you intuitively want to stay longer, human scale interaction between buildings and streets, ownership by users, placemaking and good plinths (active ground floors) and a people-centred approach based on the user’s experience – that is what The City at Eye Level is all about.
The City at Eye Level is a book, an open source learning network, and a program for improving cities, streets and places all over the world. The second edition was written by over 90 contributors, edited by Stipo and put together in partnership with UN Habitat, Future of Places, Gehl Architects, PPS Project for Public Spaces, the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism of PUCRS – Porto Alegre, and Copenhagenize.