Past Planning Theory and Current Issues Past Planning Theory The 15-Minute City concept can be seen as an accumulation of the human-centred planning theory developed over the last century in response to modernism, car-centric planning, and urban living conditions. Many theorists have proposed a combination of three elements: the neighbourhood as an organizing unit, the importance of diversity, and the links between quality of life, built form, and active transportation, as key to human-centred planning (see Fig. 6). Neighbourhood The 15-Minute City is based on the idea of complete neighbourhoods where “one has safe and convenient access to the goods and services needed in daily life.” (City of Portland, 2012, p. 76). Complete neighbourhoods typically include affordable housing, fresh food, commercial services, recreation opportunities and open space, culture and entertainment, and opportunities for civic engagement (City of Portland, 2012). This concept is
an important component of contemporary municipal planning, but the idea of the neighbourhood as an organizing urban form goes back over 100 years. Ebenezer Howard (1902) and Clarence Perry (1929) both used fixed organizing units in the development of city plans. Howard’s (1902) Garden City was designed as a 1200m circle around institutional uses and parks, while Perry’s (1929) Neighbourhood Unit was envisioned within an 800m radius of a school. Both envisioned self-contained districts linked to the broader region by trains or cars, with the Neighbourhood Unit being surrounded by commercial uses on arterial roads. Howard (1902) and Perry (1929) developed their respective concepts as a response to issues of urban living conditions of the time, such as poor sanitation and high pollution levels (Howard, 1902), and the increased use and speed of cars (Perry, 1929), with both responding by focusing on neighbourhood scale solutions. More recently,
Planning Influences Ebenezer Howard
Clarence Perry
Jane Jacobs
Neighbourhood
Diversity
Leon Krier
Congress for the New Urbanism
Jan Gehl
Quality of Life
Figure 6: The 15-Minute City is based on concepts from a range of past planning theories 10
