Cities need to ditch internal politics and a siloed approach and embrace urban planning that focuses on the needs of their residents, according to Helle Søholt, a leading urban planner who spoke at Fortune’s Brainstorm Design conference in Singapore on last Tuesday.

Søholt is the founding partner and CEO of Gehl, an architectural firm based in Copenhagen, New York, and San Francisco. The firm is named for its Danish founder, renowned architect Jan Gehl, who helped to pioneer urban design that focuses primarily on human needs. Gehl was also an early innovator in using data in design, through “public space/public life” surveys.

More than half of the world’s population already lives in cities, and that figure will swell to more than two-thirds by 2050, according to the United Nations. And many cities are in search of fresh solutions as they attempt to deal with population growth, transportation challenges, migration, governance, and climate change.

Søholt said it’s essential to think about human needs first before moving on to bricks and mortar.

“I don’t think it’s the design itself that matters,” she said. “I think it’s what the design actually does. It’s about the quality of life that that design enables and in our case, that quality of life is public life, how that part of life can be healthier, more inclusive more dynamic and how that enables everyone in cities live a healthier life in the future.”

Gehl has been involved in a number of innovative projects, including a transformation of Times Square in New York, which was very different before its redevelopment. “Ninety percent of the space at the time was road space,” Søholt said. “So really, there was no square on Times Square.”

The firm is also currently involved in the development of a light rail corridor in downtown Sydney, and a 45 kilometer-long pathway along the Shanghai riverfront. The firm hopes the projects will transform the two cities. Gehl is even working with Ikea to turn deserted parking lots into “people places”

Søholt said it’s remarkable what cities can do with a little leadership and some good planning. Copenhagen is a case in point.

“More than 50% of the population is now bicycling,” she said. “And that’s not because we’re a different species than anyone else in the world. It’s not because we have viking blood running in our veins, but basically because the design of the streets are compelling people to do so.”

Søholt said urban design is moving away from the transport centered approach that characterized planning in the 1950s and 60s. That’s a good thing, she said, but there’s still plenty of room for improvement.

“It’s about how we as human beings from an eye-level perspective, walking in the streets, we are considering all these different things and how they come together,” she said. “We don’t think about the disruption of different agencies, and what is opened by whom and so forth. But unfortunately, this is the way that the cities are managed.”

城市规划师赫拉·索霍尔特于上周二在新加坡出席《财富》头脑风暴设计大会时表示，各大城市在进行规划时需要不以国内政治诉求为主，或一味地闭门造车，转而应以居民需求为本。

索霍尔特是Gehl建筑事务所的联合创始人及首席执行官，公司在哥本哈根、纽约和旧金山均设有办事处。公司名称取自于公司创始人——丹麦知名人士简·格尔。他曾经帮助开辟了以人类需求为重心的规划设计。格尔通过“公共空间/公共生活”调查将数据运用至设计，是这一领域的早期创新者。

联合国称，全球超过半数的人口都居住在城市，而且这个数字到2050年将超过人口的三分之二。在尝试解决人口增长、运输挑战、移民、治理和气候变化问题之际，很多城市都在寻求新的解决方案。

索霍尔特表示，最重要的是先考虑人类需求，然后再付诸行动。

她说：“我认为最重要的并非是设计本身，而是设计所能产生的效果，也就是设计能够带来的生活质量。在我们看来，这里的生活就是大众的生活，它关乎如何让大众的生活更加健康、更加包容、更具活力，以及如何让每一个城市居民在未来过上更加健康的生活。”

Gehl事务所参与了多个创新项目，包括纽约时代广场的改造，它在改造后发生了巨大的变化。索霍尔特说：“当时90%的空间都是道路，因此实际上，时代广场中不存在广场。”

该公司当前还参与了悉尼市中心轻轨走廊和上海河滨45公里长通道项目。该公司希望这些项目能够改变这两个城市。Gehl事务所甚至与宜家开展合作，将荒废的停车场转变为“市民活动场所”。

索霍尔特表示，借助一些好的规划，城市在无需多少政府干预的情况下便能做很多事情，这是件很神奇的事情。哥本哈根便是这方面的一个案例。

她说：“哥本哈根超过50%的人口如今使用自行车通勤。这并不是因为我们与世界其他地区的人有什么不同，也不是因为我们身体里流淌着维京血液，其根本原因在于街道的设计迫使人们去这样做。”

索霍尔特说，城市设计正在远离以运输为重心的模式，而这种模式在20世纪五六十年代十分普遍。她说，这是一件好事，但还有很多需要改善的地方。

她说：“它完全在于用务实的眼光来审视我们作为人类的需求——也就是在街道中行走，我们正在考虑所有这些不同的事项，以及如何进行整合。我们不会考虑它对不同机构的干扰，以及这个机构的老板是谁这类问题。但不幸的是，当前各大城市采取的依然是这种管理模式。”（财富中文网）

译者：冯丰

审校：夏林