The 15-Minute City: RESOURCES

The “15-minute city” is an approach to urban design and planning that aims to improve quality of life by creating cities where everything a resident needs can be reached within 15 minutes by foot, bike or public transit.

Based on an idea of designing a city of neighborhoods around the needs of people, not cars, Carlos Moreno developed the 15-minute city concept in Paris and is a driving force behind its implementation in that city and elsewhere. Watch his short TED talk here.

Want to engage in programming to learn more? Check out our new series, 15-Minute Seattle: Creating Livable Places for All, for a comprehensive look at how Seattle can become a 15-minute city where residents can work, shop, socialize, and recreate in one neighborhood – all within a short walk from their homes.

Core Principles of a 15-Minute City

source: C40

• Residents of every neighborhood have easy access to goods and services, particularly groceries, fresh food and healthcare.
• Every neighborhood has a variety of housing types, of different sizes and levels of affordability, to accommodate many types of households and enable more people to live closer to where they work.
• Residents of every neighborhood are able to breathe clean air, and there are green spaces for everyone to enjoy.
• More people can work close to home or remotely, thanks to the presence of smaller-scale offices, retail and hospitality, and co-working spaces.

Web Resources

• What Is a 15-Minute Neighborhood? | REEF
• Paper: Introducing the “15-Minute City”: Sustainability, Resilience and Place Identity in Future Post-Pandemic Cities | Smart Cities, Carlos Moreno et al.
• :15 City | Dan Luscher
• The 15-Minute City—No Cars Required—Is Urban Planning’s New Utopia | Bloomberg Business Week
• Defining the 15-minute city | Congress for the New Urbanism, Public Square
• How to build back better with a 15-minute city | C40
• This map tells you if you live in a ’15-minute city’ | Fast Company
• Complete Streets in the 15-Minute City | Centre for Active Transportation
• Impact to Disabled Residents: The ‘15-Minute City’ Isn’t Made for Disabled Bodies | Bloomberg CityLab
• Equity/Displacement: Where the ‘15-Minute City’ Falls Short | Bloomberg CityLab
• Seattle’s Quest to Become a 15-Minute City | The Urbanist

Video Resources

• The 15 Minute City | Herding Together  3 minutes
• 15 Minute Cities! Exploring Transferability and the Life-Sized City | Mikael Colville-Andersen    16 minutes
• 15-Minue Cities: A New Environmental Vision (Vancouver) | The Weather Network   2:30 minutes
• A 20-Minute City (Melbourne) | Melbourne School of Design   5 minutes

15-Minute Cities (sometimes more)

• Portland
• Detroit
• Ottawa
• Bogatá
• Melbourne

Map Your Neighborhood

Are you able to easily access all of your day-to-day needs (goods, services, experiences) in your neighborhood? Tell us what you can easily access from home – whether that’s by walking, biking or some other form of mobility. You decide what “accessible” means to you!

Take our brief survey here.

We’ll map everyone’s responses to see which neighborhoods are approaching 15-minute status and where we have work to do.

View the group map here.

For more information or to comment, please contact Kirsten Smith, AIA Seattle Manager of Policy & Advocacy, at kirstens@aiaseattle.temp312.kinsta.cloud.