The need to avoid public spaces and urban bustle has been an unpleasant consequence of the coronavirus. However, the debate around how and where to spend time in the city is by no means new. It’s an interesting coincidence that the pandemic-related restrictions have overlapped with problems urban planners have been working on for at least several years. Perhaps the situation will result in a broader awareness of these issues and implementation of changes.
What is it that researchers in urban living have been paying attention to? First of all, there’s the need to decentralise cities. In constantly growing metropolises with multi-million populations, authentic social relationships are rare. Being a part of an anonymous crowd does have its advantages, but it doesn’t contribute to social contacts, interactions, or the formation of communities. All of these are certainly necessary for us, yet they don’t occur naturally in large urban centres. That’s what’s inspired the idea of a 15-minute city – a metropolis consisting of smaller quarters within which all the facilities can be reached in 15 minutes.
According to that vision, the city is divided into self-sufficient areas which provide their inhabitants with everything they need: schools, kindergartens, stores, shopping centres, various services, as well as common spaces, meeting points, and places of leisure or recreation.
The 15-minute city has got plenty of advantages: it supports the formation of local communities, as when we do all of our errands near our homes. In this context, we interact with our neighbours, always running into the same people at the stores or in local parks. It also increases safety, which is easier to ensure in small communities where people know each other, even if just by sight. Additionally, it eliminates the need for constant commuting, so it not only saves people’s time, but also significantly reduces air pollution. Finally, it supports the development of local businesses, such as family businesses and small companies, encouraging shopping close to home instead of driving to big shopping malls.
As it turns out, decentralised cities also make it more difficult for the virus to spread: ever since the beginning of the pandemic, experts have found that outbreaks are more rare within local communities. This is because people there spend their time in smaller groups, and they don’t move around that much, meaning that they have little contact with random strangers. Therefore, the antidote to big-city anonymity may also be to help fight pandemics.