The Human Scale

Overview

Cities are brilliant. They facilitate things like coffee, sex and conversation. You can get a pizza at two in the morning, you can stumble into washed-up models at the pub, and you can ask your local drag queen where they got their fabulous dress while you stand in line for an ATM.

But for all of that, our cities have problems, and increasingly we are realising that the spaces we live in have an unparalleled impact on human health and happiness. There are 7 billion people alive today. By the end of this century there will be 10 billion. And it's estimated that 80 percent of those people will live in cities.

"We have to deal with a doubling of urban dwellers in the next forty years. How are we going to make life in these places sustainable?" This is the question asked by Danish filmmaker Andreas Dalsgaard, whose documentary The Human Scale made its Australian premiere at the Sydney Film Festival last week and will screen at Melbourne's ACMI in June and July.

Read our interview with Andreas Dalsgaard about the movement to build cities for people.