An ambitious urban planning concept is successfully implemented in a new neighborhood in a European city.
A few years ago, the Franco-Colombian urbanist Carlos Moreno proposed the idea of the „15-minute city,” a city where we can reach everything we need – work, school, medical facilities, shops, places for leisure activities, etc. – within just a 15-minute walk or bike ride.
While several cities flirt with this concept introduced by Moreno, in the Nordhavn neighborhood in Copenhagen, an even more ambitious model is already being applied. Here, residents can meet almost any daily need with just a five-minute walk.
The Guardian calls it the “five-minute city” and presents it as an example of a city where things are done right: on a human scale, pedestrian-friendly, architecturally diverse, setting ecological standards, with many areas along the waterfront. It is a peaceful place, not because there are no people, but because there are not many cars.
The neighborhood where cars are not welcome
In fact, this is the fundamental idea behind the “five-minute city”: “Cars are not welcome here,” as explained by Lars Riemann from the planning consultancy company Ramboll, which won the project for designing the neighborhood in 2008.
Nordhavn was previously an industrial area that authorities decided to redevelop, along with other similar areas, as the population and popularity of Copenhagen began to grow. The neighborhood currently has 6,000 residents.
The planners started by building a new metro line, then bike lanes, ultimately creating an infrastructure where cars no longer have much space.
Around each metro station, they created circles with a radius of 400 meters, which you can walk in five minutes, containing residential areas and office buildings, schools and kindergartens, shops, cafes – “everything you need in daily life.” The neighborhood is currently 25% completed.
Beyond obvious advantages such as ecological and social sustainability, the concept of the five-minute city, like the 15-minute city, may also have drawbacks. It can lead to the creation of exclusive enclaves where life is not cheap, as The Guardian also points out. Property prices are already 20% higher in Nordhavn than the Copenhagen average.
C.S.
