🚶♀️ What happens when a mathematician redesigns your city?
Hey folks! It’s not every day you hear directly from someone changing the way cities are built. Last year at Imperial College London, I met Carlos Moreno, the mind behind the 15-minute city, as he laid out his vision. That lecture inspired me to explore the concept in my own writing, resulting in several pieces. Today, I want to return to it and once again look at Moreno’s insights.
Though not an urban planner (Moreno is a mathematician and computer scientist), his ideas have shaped places from Paris to Dubai. Inspired by Muhammad Yunus’ The World of Three Zeroes, he set out to design cities that tackle climate change and social inequality. Not bad for someone whose day job once involved equations rather than traffic jams!
The 15-minute city is built on proximity: daily essentials within walking or cycling distance. But as Moreno stressed, the number itself doesn’t matter. It could be 10, 15, 20 or even 30 minutes, depending on context. (Try selling a “37-minute city” though: it doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue.) What matters is freeing people from car dependency. For decades, cities were built for cars, not people. Great news if you’re a hatchback, less so if you’re human.
Car-centred design fuels (pun intended) sedentary lifestyles and pollution, increasing heart disease risks. Smarter planning — more green, less noise, better walkability — can flip the script. Instead of a rigid blueprint, Moreno suggests an adaptable vision, fit for both dense centres and sprawling suburbs.
One key point from Moreno’s talk was the economic and social value of proximity. Less time in traffic means more time (and money) spent in neighbourhood shops, and more chance encounters that stitch communities together. The pandemic drove this home: Paris’ mayor Anne Hidalgo even built her 2020 re-election campaign around the 15-minute city.
Since then, Paris has been busy reinventing itself. With 1,200 kilometres of bike lanes, more Parisians bike than drive. The right bank of the Seine, once a noisy highway, is now a riverside park where cyclists and strollers outnumber cars. Offices have morphed into housing, gyms, and coworking hubs. Hidalgo has dubbed 2025 the year of “hyper-proximity”, which is urban planning jargon for “please don’t use the car.”
Similarly, the C40 Cities network and the European Union have embraced the 15-minute city into their long-term planning, seeing it as a tool to fight climate change. Moreno also pointed to the Middle East, where cities like Dubai are adapting the concept to cope with rapid growth and extreme heat. The goal is the same: neighbourhoods that cut car use and build community, even in places that look nothing like Paris.
He closed with a reminder that building better cities means rethinking how we live. “Housing is not just about having a roof,” Moreno said. “It’s about fostering wellbeing and embracing our streets and neighbourhoods.” The 15-minute city, in his view, is a framework for creating more sustainable, connected lives. Then he grinned: “I invite you to visit Paris and see first-hand how we revitalise our neighbourhoods. I’ll be your personal guide!”
Dear Carlos, one day, I just might.
And that’s it for today! Thanks for reading! If you enjoy the newsletter, share it with a friend. And if you really enjoyed it, consider upgrading to a paid subscription: it helps support my work and means a lot.
Elia Kabanov is a science writer covering the past, present and future of technology (@metkere)
Cover art: Elia Kabanov feat. DALL-E & Picsart.