Tag: 15-minute-city | ArchDaily

Paris as a Living Laboratory: Proximity, Inclusion, and the School as Climate and Social Infrastructure

Olivia Poston — Wed, 24 Jun 2026 07:30:00 +0000

ReGreeneration is a Horizon Europe-awarded project working across nine cities to advance urban regeneration through nature-based solutions, participatory governance, and integrated approaches to climate resilience and social equity. The nine cities in the project portfolio span a range of urban typologies, scales, and planning traditions, forming a living laboratory for rethinking sustainable urban transformation in practice. Each city brings distinct challenges and ambitions to the collaboration, and this series of articles explores what each city is doing and what the broader design community can learn from it.

Reimagining the Complete Neighborhood through Urban Renaturing

Olivia Poston — Sun, 19 Apr 2026 07:30:00 +0000

The ReGreeneration project, a Horizon Europe project led by Inetum and supported by C40 Cities, ARUP, Placemaking Europe, and several others, operates as an active collaboration with local governments, private companies, academia, and civil society organizations at the intersection of urban regeneration, green public spaces, and neighborhood-scale design. Its premise addresses how European cities are built and maintained and how they experience a changing climate, arguing that cities must fundamentally change to remain livable under accelerating climate pressures.

The Line at a Crossroads: Revisiting NEOM's Vision for a Utopian City

Olivia Poston — Sun, 29 Mar 2026 07:30:00 +0000

In 2023, ArchDaily's editor-in-chief sat down with Tarek Qaddumi, Executive Director of the Line Design at NEOM, at the closing of the Line Exhibition in Riyadh. Qaddumi described a layered, three-dimensional city organized around the idea of a "five-minute sphere" of access: walkable communities stacked vertically, connected by high-speed rail, freed from cars and conventional street infrastructure, and designed to coexist symbiotically with the surrounding natural landscape. It was a compelling vision, and in the context of the moment, it was simultaneously credible and appealing. For architects and urban thinkers grappling with the failures of twentieth-century city-building, the ideas articulated were worth engaging and planning.

How Automated Parking Systems Reclaim Urban Space

Kiana Buchberger — Fri, 12 Dec 2025 06:45:00 +0000

Cities are slowly reshaping themselves. Walkable streets, bike-friendly networks, and mixed-use neighborhoods are becoming planning priorities as climate goals, changing lifestyles, and remote work reshape daily patterns. Yet even as these people-centered ideas gain momentum, most cities still rely heavily on private cars, creating a tension between the urban futures we're designing for and the mobility habits that persist today.

“It Takes a Lifetime to Build a City”: In Conversation With Mads Birgens From Cobe Architects

Reyyan Dogan — Fri, 03 Oct 2025 06:30:00 +0000

Founded in 2006 in Copenhagen, Cobe Architects has become known for its focus on public life, urban transformation, and strategic master planning. From cultural buildings and public spaces to large-scale urban developments, the office has played a central role in shaping Copenhagen's contemporary identity, particularly through its work on harbor regeneration. Among these, the Nordhavn master plan stands out as one of Europe's most ambitious waterfront redevelopments. During the Copenhagen Architecture Biennial, ArchDaily's Editor-in-Chief, Christele Harrouk, met with Mads Birgens, Head of Urbanism at Cobe, at the firm's office in Nordhavn. In the conversation, Birgens reflected on the evolution of the project since the office first won the open international competition in 2008, and on the broader lessons of designing cities for proximity, diversity, and long-term adaptability.

How Tech Parks Are Replacing Central Business Districts in India

Ankitha Gattupalli — Mon, 04 Nov 2024 07:30:00 +0000

India is often recognized for its thriving technology industry, with a reputation for producing a substantial number of skilled tech professionals each year. This has attracted a dynamic technology ecosystem that increasingly draws global companies to establish operations in the country. The rise of tech parks has become a key strategy for harnessing this talent and resources, cultivating an environment conducive to innovation. What impact do these tech parks have on the urban landscape of Indian cities?

Pioneering Change: The Obel Award Recognizes Transformative Innovations Since 2019

Maria-Cristina Florian — Thu, 12 Sep 2024 05:30:00 +0000

The Obel Award is an international prize seeking to highlight unconventional and original initiatives within the architectural profession. Supported by the Henrik Frode Obel Foundation, each annual award is centered around a specific theme. By exploring a different challenge of the built environment each year, the award remains open to a wide range of solutions and architectural innovations, honoring those contributions that have a positive impact on both people and the planet.

The Ideal City According to Five Urban Concepts

Somos Cidade — Wed, 21 Aug 2024 02:30:00 +0000

Cities, like people, are dynamic and constantly evolving to keep pace with and adapt to the social, economic, and environmental changes of their time. Similarly, the vision of how the ideal city should be planned has been influenced by each era’s realities and prevailing thoughts.

“A Framework for Developing Happy Proximities:” In Conversation with Carlos Moreno, the Pioneer of the 15-Minute City

Maria-Cristina Florian — Fri, 16 Aug 2024 05:30:00 +0000

The 15-minute city has become an internationally recognized concept advocating for a people-centric urban model where residents should be able to meet most of their daily needs within a 15-minute walk or bike ride from their homes. The concept was introduced by Professor Carlos Moreno in 2015 following the COP21 conference in Paris, which concluded with the signing of the Paris Agreement. The idea proposes a practical and adaptable framework for introducing low-carbon mobility and creating a vibrant local economy to support more social interaction and more sustainable urban environments. Since then, the concept has been recognized with the 2021 Obel Award and has gained a notable recommendation in UN-Habitat's World Cities Report. Now, Professor Moreno is publishing the book titled “The 15-Minute City: A Solution to Saving Our Time and Our Planet” to showcase concrete examples and strategies for achieving better cities. ArchDaily had a chance to sit down with Professor Carlos Moreno to discuss these ideas, offering insight into Moreno’s urban thinking and the impact of this model.

Consider the 15 mph City

John J. Parman — Fri, 19 May 2023 03:30:00 +0000

This article was originally published on Common Edge.

The 15-Minute City, Deconstructed

Steve Mouzon — Fri, 10 Mar 2023 03:30:00 +0000

This article was originally published on Common Edge.

Seratech, a Solution for Carbon-Neutral Concrete Wins the 2022 Obel Award

Christele Harrouk — Thu, 06 Oct 2022 03:00:00 +0000

Material researchers and Ph.D. students at Imperial College London, Sam Draper and Barney Shanks have won the 2022 OBEL AWARD for Seratech, a solution for carbon-neutral concrete. With a special focus this year on “embodied emissions”, the OBEL AWARD jury selected scientists to obtain the architecture award to “encourage innovative cross-disciplinary solutions to the challenges of climate change”.

Rising from the Desert: A 15-Minute City is Coming to Utah

Kaley Overstreet — Tue, 05 Apr 2022 04:00:00 +0000

15-minute cities are a trending urban planning topic that has long been discussed academically and is now slowly being implemented across existing cities in Europe. But now, the first 15-minute city is being designed and built from scratch in Utah. Dubbed “The Point”, the new 600-acre city will be located just outside Salt Lake City, and will be a redeveloped former state prison site where new jobs, housing, public spaces, amenities, and transportation will serve almost 15,000 people in an attempt to explore a prototype for how innovative urban planning concepts can improve the public health and wellness.

When Paris Eliminates Cars, Will Other Cities Follow Suit?

Kaley Overstreet — Tue, 22 Mar 2022 04:00:00 +0000

Paris has been making headlines for years with its aggressive steps to anti-car, pro-pedestrian urban improvements. Faced with increasing issues around air pollution and an attempt to reclaim streets for alternate modes of transit, as outlined in their proposed plan for a 15-minute city, the French capital is seen as a leader in future-forward urbanist strategies. Recently, their department of transportation set a deadline for their lofty goals of eliminating traffic from its roads. In just two years from now, in time for the French capital to host the Olympics, Paris plans to ban non-essential traffic from its city center, effectively eliminating around 50% of vehicular mobility. What does this plan look like? And how might other cities use this strategy to eliminate their own urban issues?

Rules of the Road for Becoming a More Bike-Dependent City

Kaley Overstreet — Tue, 25 Jan 2022 05:00:00 +0000

Over the last century, cars have been the dominant element when designing cities and towns. Driving lanes, lane expansions, parking garages, and surface lots have been utilized as we continue our heavy reliance on cars, leaving urban planners to devise creative ways to make city streets safe for pedestrians and cyclists alike. But many cities, especially a handful in Europe, have become blueprints for forward-thinking ideologies on how to design new spaces to become car-free and rethink streets to make them pedestrian-friendly. Are we experiencing the slow death of cars in urban cores around the world in favor of those who prefer to walk or ride bikes? And if so, how can it be done on a larger scale?

KCAP Architects Unveils First 15-Minute City in Moscow

Dima Stouhi — Wed, 01 Dec 2021 06:30:00 +0000

KCAP Architects and Planners have unveiled the ZIL-South masterplan, a new residential district in Moscow built on the basis of a 15-minute city. The masterplan will be built on the largest brownfield area of the former ZIL industrial zone, and will feature more than 100 hectares of commercial and residential landmarks, public spaces, parks, landscapes, and interconnect routes alongside the Moskva River, all inspired by the area's pre-industrial past.

World’s Cities Day 2021: Resilience, Climate Crisis and Sustainable Urbanization

Christele Harrouk — Mon, 01 Nov 2021 09:00:00 +0000

As cities grow in scale, dimensions, and amplitude, taking in 60% of the world population, the United Nations has designated the 31st of October as “World Cities Day”, an opportunity to talk furthermore about global urbanization, addressing challenges, encouraging opportunities across borders and highlighting responses. Focusing this edition on the theme of “Adapting Cities for Climate Resilience”, this day, part of Urban October, seeks to raise awareness about the climate crisis and its repercussions on the built environment.

UN Studio Reveals Design of 10-Minute Neighbourhood for Seoul

Andreea Cutieru — Fri, 29 Oct 2021 05:30:00 +0000

UNStudio has revealed the design for Project H1, a tech-assisted masterplan for a 10-minute neighbourhood in Seoul that would cater to the digital economy. The project transforms an industrial site and railyard into a dense mixed-use urban environment containing all the amenities of contemporary living within a 10-minute walk. This pedestrian-friendly, diverse neighbourhood is complemented by a digital infrastructure developed by UNSense, providing a framework for managing energy production and consumption, local food production, and the shared use of communal spaces.