For offering a compelling model with global outreach that facilitates narratives and mobilization on sustainable urban development and is contributing to accelerating the implementation of the New Urban Agenda as a blueprint for the COVID-19 recovery.
The UN-Habitat Scroll of Honour Award is one of the most prestigious awards aimed at acknowledging initiatives which have made outstanding contributions in the field of urban planning, affordable housing, innovation, and improved quality of urban life.
This year, the award was presented by UN-Habitat’s Executive Director Maimunah Mohd Sharif at the global observance of World Habitat Day in Balikesir, Republic of Türkiye, on 3 October 2022.
The 15-minute City Global Initiative received the award for its innovative responses and solutions aligned with 2022 World Habitat Day theme “Mind the Gap. Leave No One and No Place Behind”.
The 15-minute city concept is an urban model conceived by Professor Carlos Moreno and scientists from Chaire ETI at the Sorbonne Business School. It has been adopted by several cities around the world as a blueprint for post-COVID-19 recovery.
It is an integrated approach bringing together mobility, housing, economic development, education, and culture and ensuring that daily needs are close at hand in every neighbourhood – within a 15-minute journey. This concept has sparked a global movement to tackle the pandemic, car dominance, climate change, and urban inequality by reintroducing the qualities of proximity within urban planning. The 15-minute city has become a global movement influencing a range of local adaptations of the approach to advance the New Urban Agenda.
“The 2022 UN-Habitat Scroll of Honour Award for the 15’min city project is a new international recognition for this pioneering initiative to create happy neighbours and find new solutions in the face of climate change and economic and social challenges for cities,” said Professor Moreno at the Word Habitat Day celebration in Balikesir.
By creating walkable, mixed-use and compact neighbourhoods, and integrating green infrastructure, this model can provide multiple benefits for health, equity and climate change adaptation.
Since 2020, Paris has pioneered the adoption of the 15-minute city concept, which also has roots in other recent urban planning designs like Barcelona’s superblocks. Portland, USA, began planning for 20-minute neighbourhoods as early as 2008. Australian cities, meanwhile, benchmark their degree of connectivity under the rubric of 30-minute cities.