La città dei 15 minuti

by Natalie Whittle

Le città in cui abitiamo modellano, a volte senza che ce ne accorgiamo, la nostra vita: dove andiamo, come ci arriviamo, cosa facciamo e cosa non facciamo entro i loro confini. Ma cosa accadrebbe se costruissimo le nostre città in modo differente? E se viaggiassimo in modo diverso? E se potessimo ottenere indietro un po’ del tempo speso a spostarci e farlo nostro? In questo breve e documentato saggio, Natalie Whittle esamina vantaggi e svantaggi del concetto di città dei 15 minuti. Tra cambiamento climatico e pandemie che mettono in discussione la necessità del pendolarismo, Whittle invita a riflettere su come e perché ci spostiamo ogni giorno. Dalla Amsterdam delle auto a quella delle biciclette, dalla Parigi di Haussmann fino a una inedita Paris 2024, le città si sono continuamente reinventate e un’idea potrebbe cambiare la nostra vita quotidiana ― e il mondo ― molto più rapidamente di quel che pensiamo.

Genres: Geography

240 pages, Paperback

Published May 12, 2023

Reviews

[Molly · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed Natalie's take on the 15 minute city. Through popular city examples from both the East and West and key opinion formers she emphasises the want to create better urban organisations. A really well written and thoughtfully presented book , I would highly recommend.

[Alex · Rating 2 out of 5]

Being an avid follower of Not Just Bikes, I was looking forward to reading this short book on the 15-Minute City. Despite the interesting premise, I found it a challenging and often unfocused read, which often prefers to draw on the subjective experiences of the author than follow an objective narrative.

The book (rightfully) highlights the importance of cycling and walking infrastructure, however like many city planners, considerations to the needs of the disabled are not made. In fact without considering the needs of all, the 15 Minute City improves nothing more than the lives of those able to afford city life over the suburbs - a point the book does make well.

One of the layer chapters examines Glasgow where the author lived at the time of writing. In terms of UK cities, (Greater) Glasgow is an interesting case as it has the most metropolitan rail stations outside of London, is one of three UK cities with an underground, and (contrasting to many UK cities) has streets arranged in a grid system. Instead of examining the effect of these on the 15 Minute City, the author instead discusses a few new infrastructure projects, and how lockdown has made her feel 'more connected to her neighbours'. I feel that there was a missed opportunity here, and I would recommend anyone interested in this subject in Glasgow to look at https://www.getglasgowmoving.org/

This is a seriously interesting idea with a lot of potential, however on finishing I didn't feel that I properly understood what a 15 Minute City actually looked like, and the changes needed to achieve this. Despite only being a short book at 150 pages, I found it a challenging read as each chapter had a markedly different writing style, and there was often little connection between the chapters. I would be interested however to read a more detailed book on the matter.

[Simon · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting read with plenty of references to other works, ideas and past experiences to have me looking them up online as I read on.

Hung together pretty well as an introduction to this topic without having to buy a copy of Carlos Moreno's expensive book. That probably would have been more academic anyway!

I thought there were several topics which I could spend more time on, so the list of references at the end, as well as those in the text, will prove useful.

Occasionally frustrating when you felt some ideas around the planning, development and rebuilding urban built environments could have been expanded upon. The chapter which talked about commuting was particularly interesting as a former long time commuter into London.

A good 4-stars as a read. Interesting topic.

[Matthew Glowacki · Rating 2 out of 5]

While I agree with the premise of making cities about more than just being easier to move cars around, the book was really unfocused and hard to follow a thread of thought to a conclusion. It felt like a random smattering of anecdotes, quotes, history, etc.

In a chapter titled “handlebar utopia” why are there several paragraphs about Tokyo’s hydrogen initiatives?

[Sandro Pellegrinetti · Rating 3 out of 5]

Speravo in qualcosa di più tecnico.
Spesso il libro è dispersivo, poteva essere diviso in più capitoli per raggruppare e separare meglio gli argomenti.

[Francie McQuarrie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well researched, a few random tangents

[Giulia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read the FT article written by the author, the book doesn’t add much to it.