9 minute read
PEOPLE
people Re-enchanting the city
Barcelona is embracing the concept of the Superblock
As citizens look for a better quality of life — a search that can include moving to a more rural or suburban location — interest has surged among city mayors and urban planners in the 15-minute urban neighbourhood. Doug Morrison and Gina Power fi nd out more
IN THE post-COVID world, as cities look to build resilience, authorities are turning to the 15-minute neighbourhood as a way to make their cities more attractive and to meet their citizens’ aspirations for hybrid working, less commuting and a healthier lifestyle. Such neighbourhoods have traditionally been concentrated in wealthier, central city districts. Then, in 2016, Carlos Moreno, the mayor of Paris’ special envoy for smart cities, launched the idea of the ‘15-minute city’, so named because all the key amenities and services can all be reached by foot or bicycle within 15 minutes. In themselves such objectives are hardly new, but the overall combination has gained currency since February 2020 when the Paris Mayor, Anne Hidalgo, made the 15-minute city a key pledge in her re-election campaign. Hidalgo was already known for promoting green policies during her first term in office. But as the re-election campaign rolled on through the first half of 2020, so the
pandemic restrictions made an undeniable impact on how densely populated cities like Paris function. The 15-minute city started to resonate with people who were not only questioning the wisdom of long-distance commutes to work but realising the importance of close social links and local shops and amenities. Hidalgo was duly re-elected with a large majority in June 2020, and the 15-minute city is seen now as a contemporary response to the climate crisis and the pandemic. The 15-minute-city model has since been adopted by C40, the global network of cities set up to fight climate change. C40 is currently working with a group of 16 mayors around the world to introduce the concept of the 15-minute neighbourhood to their cities. “COVID has emphasised the importance of neighbourhoods and of hyper-local living,” says Helene Chartier, senior adviser for C40 Cities. She sums up the four principles of a 15-minute neighbourhood: it must be a ‘complete’ neighbourhood; it must function as a place for everyone, with a range of housing and types of community engagement; it must feature people-centred streets and mobility; and it must offer connected places, both digitally and by public transport. “The 15-minute city reimagines streets and public spaces to prioritise people, rather than vehicles, and to build more vibrant neighbourhoods,” Chartier continues. This marks a shift away from single-use zoning to embrace more mixed-use neighbourhoods and new, hybrid ways of working. “A move to hybrid working can really help us to shift to a new type of living, with less commuting and a healthier lifestyle,” she adds. “As people spend more time in their neighbourhood, they also spend more locally. This in turn fosters a more polycentric type of urban development. The 15-minute city is a flexible concept that municipalities can tailor to their city’s culture and circumstances, and to respond to specific local needs.” Already, the concept is finding traction in cities as diverse as Barcelona, Dijon, Hamburg and Paris. As Chartier says: “There is great momentum.” And not before time. According to C40, buildings account for 50% of total emissions in its 97 member cities while construction materials cover over 30% of global resource consumption. More worrying
Artwork by 14 local Black artists Built with 34% women and minority labor 4,000 sq.m of open space Affordable micro-retail kiosks Promoting local Black-owned businesses
Mobility is the key to dense new neighbourhoods like Hamburg’s HafenCity
still is the forecast that an additional 2.5 billion people will live in cities by 2050, requiring 1 billion new homes.
As part of its superblock, or ‘superilla’, programme, the city of Barcelona launched a €37.8m project this summer to reclaim four streets and four squares in the central Eixample district for 5.8 ha of ‘social use’. The aim is also to foster local business. The streets and squares will be fully pedestrianised; trees will account for 10% of the surface area, with 30% of rainwater recycled; solar panels will provide power; curbless paving will open up the space facade to facade; and there will be more children’s play areas and places to relax. The goal is to roll out the model in 21 streets in Eixample, which will mean that every resident will have one of these streets or squares within 200 metres of their home. The polycentric nature of the 15-minute neighbourhood also plays a key role in boosting the vibrancy of secondary cities. An example is Dijon, 100 minutes south-east of Paris by high-speed train. Most Parisians looking to leave their city give the search for a better quality of life as the main reason. Dijon came top for quality of life in the Arthur Loyd 2020 Barometer for medium-sized cities in France, and it was one of four finalists in the European Green Capital Awards 2022. Next April, the capital of Burgundy is due to open the International City of Gastronomy and Wine on a 6.5 ha site. The new ‘city’ includes a cultural and training centre, retail, cinemas, a hotel, housing, an eco-district and a 3.5 ha woodland area.
Professor Jurgen Bruns-Berentelg, CEO of HafenCity Hamburg , talks in terms of “a 10-minute city”, or “compact city”, benefiting the 15,000 people who work there today as well as the 3,000 residents. There is already much emphasis on mobility — getting to and from work on foot rather than long-distance commuting — and therefore preserving what Bruns-Berentelg calls “the time sovereignty of the citizens”.
After over 20 years of development, Bruns-Berentelg believes future phases of HafenCity will have to become “doubly compact”. In other words, there will be an increased densification of the buildings, albeit with zero carbon emissions, but also an even greater greening of the public areas — not just parks but the streets, too. Under the plans for a new waterfront project called Grasbrook, for instance, the intention is for public open spaces to take into account water cycles, the urban climate and biodiversity. This port area, which is sealed off today, will be opened up and transformed into a district with “greened roofs and facades”, around 10,000 trees and the preservation of ecologically valuable biotopes influenced by the tide. The streets here will be largely given over to leisure and recreation rather than cars. As Bruns-Berentelg says, the “green streetscape environment” will be a key feature across all the future phases of HafenCity. The masterplan calls for the streets to be lined by trees, planted about 10 metres apart. In effect, this will create “a green umbrella over the street”, which will mitigate high summer temperatures and help prevent evaporation of water. “Basically, there will be a green frame on every street,” he says. HafenCity has three major urban development initiatives at the planning stage — Billebogen and Science City as well as Grasbrook. Though the masterplans were all drafted pre-COVID, Bruns-Berentelg says there has been no need to make significant amendments because of the pandemic. If anything, HafenCity’s “compact city” principles seem ideal for the post-lockdown era. “Maybe in five years we will fine-tune the plans when we can really see the effects of COVID,” he says. Bruns-Berentelg points out that HafenCity is preparing to start developing its own headquarters, a 7,200 sq m, “zero emissions” office building. It is designed to be climate neutral throughout its whole life cycle — from its construction, through its management and culminating in its dismantling and disposal.
The Clichy Batignolles project, an ‘ecoquartier’ built around a 10 ha park in north-west Paris, is due for completion in 2023 by Paris & Metropole Amenagement, a public local company
In effect, he adds, HafenCity is hoping to demonstrate that the same high standards of sustainability and resource-saving on individual buildings can be applied to entire neighbourhoods, despite their high density of population.
Back in Paris, the birthplace of the 15-minute neighbourhood, the concept became a key pillar of Mayor Anne Hidalgo’s re-election campaign last year. As well as more cycle paths and less on-street vehicle parking, current measures include the opening up of seven main squares, including Place de la Bastille, to create more green public space and to revitalise local retail. A myriad of 15-minute eco-neighbourhoods are being rolled out across the city, as well as the greater Paris region. The first ‘ecoquartier’ is the 54 ha Clichy-Batignolles project, built around a 10 ha park in north-west Paris and due to be completed in 2023 by Paris & Metropole Amenagement, an SPL, or public local company.
More ‘mixity’ of neighbourhoods is also being encouraged by the third round of the Reinventing Paris architecture competition, which focuses on the conversion of vacant offices. United Grand Paris, which represents 18 real estate players in the greater Paris region, including the City of Paris, has thrown its weight behind the concept, stating: “The capacity of buildings to convert, evolve and adjust has become crucial in today’s circular urban policy.”
Mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo
As C40 Cities advisor Chartier concludes: “In terms of emissions and in terms of biodiversity, it is not sustainable if people leave the compactness of the city in search of more space and a suburban way of living. That is why we need to re-enchant the city.”
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