IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v14y2022i9p5468-d807470.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Urban Transition and the Return of Neighbourhood Planning. Questioning the Proximity Syndrome and the 15-Minute City

Author

Listed:
  • Elena Marchigiani

    (Department of Engineering and Architecture, University of Trieste, Via Alfonso Valerio 6/1, 34127 Trieste, Italy)

  • Bertrando Bonfantini

    (Department of Architecture and Urban Studies, Politecnico di Milano, Via Bonardi 3, 20133 Milano, Italy)

Abstract

European policies acknowledge cities’ major roles in building greener and just urban habitats. When rethinking cities’ spatial organisation, the call is for creating better liveability conditions at the level closest to citizens. In this frame, research into the impacts of COVID-19 has led to a revival of neighbourhood planning and the 15-Minute City has been proposed as a successful model for cities’ recoveries in the name of regained proximity to collective facilities. This article questions the long-lasting neighbourhood image that the 15-Minute City refers to, by exploring recent experiences that renewed its application. We begin with a literature review, and then develop an evidence-based approach to a deeper analysis of policy design and implementation focusing on the Italian city of Milano. Discussion and conclusions highlight critical issues and potentials of the 15-Minute City. If the threat is that of a simplified and rhetorical use of this idea, its ability to gather plural actions under an appealing flagship can be a powerful driver for urban regeneration policies. However, being more than just a reproducible spatial model, the 15-Minute City needs to be handled as a complex planning device, whose effective implementation depends on the specific characteristics of the urban environments it applies to and on the strong intertwining of different policy fields and tools.

Suggested Citation

  • Elena Marchigiani & Bertrando Bonfantini, 2022. "Urban Transition and the Return of Neighbourhood Planning. Questioning the Proximity Syndrome and the 15-Minute City," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-29, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:9:p:5468-:d:807470
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/9/5468/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/9/5468/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Maryam Fayyaz & Esther González-González & Soledad Nogués, 2022. "Autonomous Mobility: A Potential Opportunity to Reclaim Public Spaces for People," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(3), pages 1-16, January.
    2. Georgia Pozoukidou & Zoi Chatziyiannaki, 2021. "15-Minute City: Decomposing the New Urban Planning Eutopia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(2), pages 1-25, January.
    3. Carlo Pisano, 2020. "Strategies for Post-COVID Cities: An Insight to Paris En Commun and Milano 2020," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(15), pages 1-16, July.
    4. Rosalba D’Onofrio & Elio Trusiani, 2022. "The Future of the City in the Name of Proximity: A New Perspective for the Urban Regeneration of Council Housing Suburbs in Italy after the Pandemic," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(3), pages 1-26, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Poorthuis, Ate & Zook, Matthew, 2023. "Moving the 15-minute city beyond the urban core: The role of accessibility and public transport in the Netherlands," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 110(C).
    2. Giada Casarin & Julie MacLeavy & David Manley, 2023. "Rethinking urban utopianism: The fallacy of social mix in the 15-minute city," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 60(16), pages 3167-3186, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Liang Wen & Dora Marinova & Jeffrey Kenworthy & Xiumei Guo, 2022. "Street Recovery in the Age of COVID-19: Simultaneous Design for Mobility, Customer Traffic and Physical Distancing," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(6), pages 1-23, March.
    2. Amir Reza Khavarian-Garmsir & Ayyoob Sharifi & Mohammad Hajian Hossein Abadi & Zahra Moradi, 2023. "From Garden City to 15-Minute City: A Historical Perspective and Critical Assessment," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(2), pages 1-15, February.
    3. Fernando Fonseca & Escolástica Fernandes & Rui Ramos, 2022. "Walkable Cities: Using the Smart Pedestrian Net Method for Evaluating a Pedestrian Network in Guimarães, Portugal," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(16), pages 1-23, August.
    4. Joanna Jaroszewicz & Anna Majewska, 2021. "Group Spatial Preferences of Residential Locations—Simplified Method Based on Crowdsourced Spatial Data and MCDA," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(9), pages 1-24, April.
    5. Paul Barratt & Ruth Swetnam, 2022. "A civic and sustainable 15-minute campus? Universities should embrace the 15-minute city concept to help create vibrant sustainable communities," Local Economy, London South Bank University, vol. 37(8), pages 734-744, December.
    6. Majewska, Anna & Denis, Małgorzata & Krzysztofik, Sylwia & Monika Maria, Cysek-Pawlak, 2022. "The development of small towns and towns of well-being: Current trends, 30 years after the change in the political system, based on the Warsaw suburban area," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 115(C).
    7. Giada Casarin & Julie MacLeavy & David Manley, 2023. "Rethinking urban utopianism: The fallacy of social mix in the 15-minute city," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 60(16), pages 3167-3186, December.
    8. Przemysław Śleszyński & Amir Reza Khavarian-Garmsir & Maciej Nowak & Paulina Legutko-Kobus & Mohammad Hajian Hossein Abadi & Noura Al Nasiri, 2023. "COVID-19 Spatial Policy: A Comparative Review of Urban Policies in the European Union and the Middle East," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(3), pages 1-30, January.
    9. Georgia Pozoukidou & Zoi Chatziyiannaki, 2021. "15-Minute City: Decomposing the New Urban Planning Eutopia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(2), pages 1-25, January.
    10. Silvio Cristiano & Samuele Zilio, 2021. "Whose Health in Whose City? A Systems Thinking Approach to Support and Evaluate Plans, Policies, and Strategies for Lasting Urban Health," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(21), pages 1-19, November.
    11. Vesna Lovec & Miroslav Premrov & Vesna Žegarac Leskovar, 2020. "Is There Any Relation between the Architectural Characteristics of Kindergartens and the Spread of the New Coronavirus in Them?—A Case Study of Slovenia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(24), pages 1-19, December.
    12. Huete-Alcocer, Nuria & Hernandez-Rojas, Ricardo David, 2022. "Do SARS-CoV-2 safety measures affect visitors experience of traditional gastronomy, destination image and loyalty to a World Heritage City?," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    13. Himanshu Grover, 2023. "Public risk perception of covid-19 transmission and support for compact development," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-9, December.
    14. Ya Yang & Zhengyu Jiang & Yawei Hou & Huaxing Wang & Zeyu Wang, 2023. "Healthy City Community Space-Oriented Structural Planning and Management Optimization under COVID-19," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(5), pages 1-14, February.
    15. Nowak, Maciej J. & Simon, Krzysztof, 2022. "Kierunki polityki przestrzennej miast w Polsce a pandemia SARS-CoV-2. Perspektywa medyczna i przestrzenna," Studia z Polityki Publicznej / Public Policy Studies, Warsaw School of Economics, vol. 9(4), pages 1-17, December.
    16. Ebba Lisberg Jensen & Johanna Alkan Olsson & Ebba Malmqvist, 2023. "Growing Inwards: Densification and Ecosystem Services in Comprehensive Plans from Three Municipalities in Southern Sweden," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(13), pages 1-14, June.
    17. Aura Bertoni & Paola Dubini & Alberto Monti, 2021. "Bringing Back in the Spatial Dimension in the Assessment of Cultural and Creative Industries and Its Relationship with a City’s Sustainability: The Case of Milan," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(19), pages 1-18, September.
    18. Irene Manzini Ceinar & Ilaria Mariotti, 2021. "Teleworking In Post-Pandemic Times:May Local Coworking Spaces Be The Future Trend?," Romanian Journal of Regional Science, Romanian Regional Science Association, vol. 15(1), pages 52-76, JUNE.
    19. Fabio Borghetti & Cristian Giovanni Colombo & Michela Longo & Renato Mazzoncini & Leonardo Cesarini & Luigi Contestabile & Claudio Somaschini, 2021. "15-Min Station: A Case Study in North Italy City to Evaluate the Livability of an Area," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(18), pages 1-18, September.
    20. Elizelle Juanee Cilliers & Shankar Sankaran & Gillian Armstrong & Sandeep Mathur & Mano Nugapitiya, 2021. "From Urban-Scape to Human-Scape: COVID-19 Trends That will Shape Future City Centres," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(10), pages 1-12, October.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:9:p:5468-:d:807470. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.