Note on cities for walking

Wondering about how to make towns and places better for walking… again

Organic walking city sketch

Text and drawing by Frits Ahlefeldt

Walking might be basic to creating a good architecture and happy life…

“As a fish needs to swim, a bird to fly, a deer to run, we need to walk, not in order to survive, but to be happy.”
Enrique Penalosa. Former mayor of Bogota. Colombia

Quote from “walkable city” book by Jeff Speck

Walkability is becoming one of the most promising ways to design places, to help both thrive, biodiversity, sustainability and climate.

Here is one of my many concept sketches of how we might imagine cities look, if we stop designing for cars, and start designing radically for life and walking…

I’ve done these sketches since back in the 90ties and still do them, as I slowly try to grasp how to do this best… To help us get more into walking and less into driving.