The 15-Minute City
What it is
The 15-minute city is a planning concept, articulated by the Sorbonne professor Carlos Moreno in 2016, in which residents can meet most daily needs — work, food, healthcare, education, culture and leisure — within a roughly fifteen-minute walk or cycle of home. It promotes mixing uses, decentralising services into neighbourhoods and giving streets back to people rather than through-traffic. The model builds on earlier proximity and neighbourhood ideas but frames closeness itself as the organising aim. Paris under mayor Anne Hidalgo adopted it as an explicit policy goal.
Why it matters
After the COVID-19 lockdowns highlighted the value of local amenities, the idea spread rapidly to cities worldwide and into the C40 network's recovery agenda. It recast proximity and reduced car dependence as a central objective of contemporary urban policy, while also drawing political controversy.
Plans it shaped
- Amsterdam Zuidas (1998–)
- Munster Promenade & Cycling Network Plan (2000s–)
- Malmö Western Harbour / Bo01 (2001–)
- Thimphu Structure Plan (2002)
- Medellín PUI & MetroCable (2004–)
- Dongtan Eco-city (unbuilt) (2005–)
- Atlanta BeltLine (2005–)
- Bahrain National Plan 2030 (2008)
- Jurong Lake District Master Plan (2008–)
- Birmingham Big City Plan (2010)
- Barcelona Superblocks (Superilles) (2016–)
- Plan Melbourne 2017–2050 (2017)