In his book Life between buildings, the Danish architect Jan Gehl, who is among the world’s most prominent urban planners, elucidates the fundamental importance of intelligent spatial planning to successful communal coexistence in our cities. Jan Gehl identifies the essential cornerstones for improving quality of life. The focus of his observations is on people, whose essential needs should be the basis for the design of public spaces. Unlike architecture — which, like other aspects of our lives, is subject to changing fashions — their criteria are remarkably constant and unchanging. The book — which was published for the first time in the original Danish over 40 years ago and has since been translated into more than 50 languages — has lost none of its relevance. Instead, it continues to offer us suggestions for critically improving the quality of life in our world that, while they are surprising, also cut to the heart of the issue. This is the first time that this classic of urban planning literature has appeared in German.