2.3. Interpretative remarks, problem statement & way forward to case studies

2.3. Interpretative remarks, problem statement & way forward to case studies.

The concept of Fifteen-minute city was initially developed for the Parisian context. However, in the backdrop of COVID-19 pandemic and the common problems experienced across the cities, the concept was globalised as a spatial planning model which according to its proponents, renders a paradigm shift in urban planning. In the pandemic-era, it has clear attractions, especially concerned with provisions for ‘work from home’ patterns and its spill over effect at the local scale. Yet, the concept has raised sharp contrasting perspectives across the academia and planning fraternity in general. Although its components of sustainable modes of travel, dense and diverse cities, proximity to services are appreciated and backed by the academic studies, the temporal limit of 15/20 minutes and its uncategorised social functions are less supported. According to its critics, it risk creating disparities and segregation reproduced due to uneven mobilities. During the study, a distinction was made while observing the ‘Arguments in favour’ & ‘Critical voices’, the former is informed by professionals which focused at the micro scale (i.e. neighbourhood to city) while the latter is informed by the macro perspective (i.e. city and metropolitan scale).

As the first theme of tension from a normative perspective to city making, it was observed that the concepts over dependency on decentralization for creating proximity of services to people stands in contrast to, what some economists and transport planners put forward as, primary function of cities i.e. Achieving benefits of agglomeration and scale of economies. Furthermore, localization of jobs from work centres to local neighbourhoods shall deprive the cities from performing the role of places of opportunities for members from low strata of society to achieve socio-economic mobility. The concept is criticized for its unidimensional outlook to cities from resident oriented perspective, risking economic vitality of cities. From a spatial planning perspective covered in theme 2, the study attempted to analyse the concept from a prescriptive viewpoint to city design. It was found that the proponents use only normative concepts of design namely, density and diversity while no prescriptive guidelines are provided to achieve the fifteen-minute city. It also assumes proximity as an individual design principle apart from the above two, although in spatial planning practice, proximity is a by-product of design and diversity. Thus, making the concept inconsistent and ambiguous. The concept poses a challenge to fundamental notion of time and distance consolidated in neighbourhood concept, the 8–10-minute walk (interpretated as 5-minute neighbourhood based on crow-fly distance) During the study, it was understood that the means of transport determines the size of shed, which in turn should be reflected in the density values which shall define the minimum population within that shed that is able to support the installation of services. For example, with an electric bike as a mode of transport, some suburban areas may qualify under 15minute accessibility. Due to scale of economies and agglomeration activities as mentioned before, it is not recommended, due to economic vitality of cities, to decentralise the social functions. As an implication of it, lower order facilities can be provided at local scale however higher order facilities ought to be provided at more aggregate city level. Thus, it becomes imperative to

create a hierarchy of functions/ services/amenities to be provided within different sheds (example, ranging from grocery stores, post offices, hospitals to universities) categorised by considering the chosen transport mode and social equity between different users and their abilities (like old, children, ethnic, etc)

Furthermore, non-decentralization of functions like industries, warehouses, water treatment plants, etc can be interpretated as; their will exist some areas in cities which will be unfavourable environments for walkability due to their large building footprint, which can be further exaggerated by their monofunctionally. For example, manufacturing areas cannot be mixed use zones with residential quarters due to reasons of health. Jane Jacobs called them ‘Border vacuums’

These tensions of spatial organizations demonstrate that, there will exist, by default, spatially distributed temporal inequalities in cities. These inequalities may be accentuated by geographic conditions of/in the city which may make it difficult to promote walkability or decentralization of services due to natural barriers of topography. The third theme informs the application of the concept to the existing socio-economic complexities at play at scale beyond the ‘local’ scale i.e city and metropolitan scale. The study draws lessons from the opinions by various experts coupled with recent 15-minute city mapping exercises undertaken by individual authors and organization across various cities in OECD countries.

It is observed that the FMC’s oversimplified outlook towards complexities of demographic and socio-economic processes of the cities, reduced role of public transit as a mere connector of FMC modules further risks exacerbation of inequalities in cities by creating enclaves similar to the garden city concept proposed by Ebenezer Howard (Tizot & Jean-Yves, 2018). The implementation of FMC risks mobilization of capital through real estate thus risking exacerbation of inequalities by gentrification and displacement. While these critical dimensions of the FMC are of dire consequences if applied to the city making processes, a trend has emerged in the last year especially propelled by C40s advocacy, of cities across the globe adopting this time-based urban concept. Thus, presenting an opportunity to investigate the adoption of the utopian concept into practice of urban planning. To contribute to the debate of this rediscovered time-based urban agenda namely 15–20minute city, this thesis shall advance to contrast the theoretical presumptions covered in previous chapter by undertaking a study of the cities which have adopted this time oriented urban vision. For this purpose, case study approach (Kohlbacher, 2006) shall be used. The explorative case studies thus shall add clarity to the highly contested concept from empirical viewpoint and provide an opportunity to validate or invalidate the presumptions around the Utopian concept.