I’m with Jan Gehl.

Well I think it was Jan Gehl who said that it doesn’t really matter what buildings look like above the ground floor because most people don’t look up.

Increasingly valid in our device driven world…. did you know there are a dozen apps which use your smart phone camera to view the ground on your screen so that you can walk while texting!? Incredible. I thought I had a clever idea there. So I’m with Jan Gehl… if he said that.

It was local heritage advisor Richard Woods who once said to me that glass is not see though. Much to my chagrin at the time because it came in the context of a review, but you know, he was right. Glass is of course often see through, but in real life with frames and reflections and security wipe cards and safety banding that covers half the pane, glass is often not really see through, and is a very real barrier.

What looks open and flowing and connected in our carefully crafted renders is really a strong line of separation.

Which brings us back down to that ground floor, and the ground plane, the activation and the daily life…the things that Jan and I were talking about in the first paragraph.

We all talk about activated frontage. It’s written in numerous plans and guidelines and we present it back as a feature and planning approval tick box. I think from our own life experience we all know what it means, and I think from our own holidays and lane-way evenings we know what it feels like. I think we know that it’s not just a franchised coffee shop in the foyer, or the fact that we wrote ‘tenancy’ on part of the floor plan. We know that activation does not just mean see through, it means people and activity. It can happen in the open and it can happen inside. It’s the buzz of a community where occupants are going about their daily lives, doing chores and dining, or shopping and working, or cooking and cleaning, or talking and writing, or reading, or playing…and you can be a part of it.

So why do we still float on glass? The reflective barrier kind of glass.

Even some of our most notable new buildings meet the ground with walls of perfectly rendered glass. In fact I suggest that most of our new buildings are still sitting above a ground plane of sealed glass.

So I’m with Jan, and Richard, and real life at the ground plane.

I think architects and our collaborators can craft the solutions.