The Human Scale

2012

1 hr. 23 min.

Documentary

List

64%

11 Reviews

Tomatometer

84%

100+ Ratings

Audience Score

Thinkers, architects and urban planners discuss ways to increase human interaction in cities.

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Premiered Feb 12

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Documentário sobre o urbanismo feito para a escala humana, cidades pequenas com prédios baixos. Trabalho participativo.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

01/15/23

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Audience Member

Our future is terrifying, but knowing there's architects and city planners trying to make a difference gives me a grain of hope.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

01/19/23

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Audience Member

Interesting and hopeful, rather than inspiring and optimistic.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

02/20/23

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Audience Member

Everyone living in a big city should watch this.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

02/07/23

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Audience Member

The Human Scale succeeds in promoting the importance of a well-built urban environment by pointing out just what is important to people. By studying people and how they react to their built environment, Gehl was able to transform places like Times Square into a pedestrian paradise.

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

01/22/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Like 2011 doco Urbanised, The Human Scale deals with the shaping of modern cities to avoid the mistakes of the past and to make urban dwelling more enjoyable and efficient as humanity shifts towards a highly urbanised future. In a swift global survey the film charts the sometimes painful process of challenging car-centric sprawl in the face of vested interests and outdated worldviews. From an Antipodean perspective, the chapters on smarter growth in Melbourne and the grueling reconstruction in Christchurch (with doomy music for Gerry Brownlee's attempted usurpation of the public-led city plan) are close to home. But it's the eye-opening dilemmas faced by the tumultuous 'giga-cities' of India, Bangladesh and China that are where the fate of 21st century humanity is being decided. The chapter on Dhaka was most worrying - gaining half a million population every year, the city is increasingly prone to devastation and huge loss of life from even relatively mild earthquakes as building standards are shirked and ground-water is squandered.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

02/13/23

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J. R. Jones

Chicago Reader

No documentary I've seen about city planning has come at the topic from such a resolutely humanistic perspective, or given me more hope for the future.

Apr 1, 2014

Full Review

Linda Barnard

Toronto Star

The Human Scale presents interesting ideas but the format is often dull as concrete, more civics lecture than vibrant city life.

Nov 7, 2013

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Gary Goldstein

Los Angeles Times

Writer-director Andreas M. Dalsgaard takes such a low-key approach to presenting the film's vital, potentially involving topic that viewers may find themselves more inspired to take a snooze than a stroll.

Oct 31, 2013

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Daniel Walber

Nonfics

Dalsgaard has made a tight, compelling and well-designed film about design. That's harder to pull off than one might think.

Rated: 4/5

Jun 5, 2014

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Chris Knight

National Post

Gehl suggests we study people, not cars, and change our cities accordingly.

Rated: 3/4

Nov 7, 2013

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Avi Offer

NYC Movie Guru

Insightful and fascinating, but too dry and somewhat myopic.

Rated: 6.05/10

Oct 20, 2013

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Synopsis

Thinkers, architects and urban planners discuss ways to increase human interaction in cities.

Director: Andreas Møl Dalsgaard
Screenwriter: Andreas Møl Dalsgaard
Production Co: Final Cut for Real
Genre: Documentary
Original Language: English
Release Date (Streaming): Feb 12, 2015

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