“What is the 15-Minute City? It’s the city of proximity, where you can find everything, you need within 15 minutes of your home. This is a prerequisite for the ecological transformation of the city, while at the same time improving the daily lives of Parisians”

“The urban agenda is the space in which we will win the excitement and commitment of citizens to the revolution of green and social progress. The 15-minute cities are that brilliant idea that turns the complex into the simple, the transformative into the attractive, with a common thread to think and test the changes. We must thank Carlos Moreno for his help in helping us to understand and promote the necessary changes, to conquer clean, healthy, and close cities, on a human scale, for the neighbours”

‘Professor Moreno’s role in revolutionising the way we think about urban living in the 21st century has been an enormous influence on both my own thinking and our work at C40 Cities. This new exploration of the 15 minute city could not be more timely, as interest in the concept continues to grow rapidly and its ideas transform many of the world’s cities into greener, healthier and more pleasant places to live.’

Carlos Moreno has done cities and society a great service by showing us the vital importance of the 15-minute city. where we can work, send our children to school shop, and carry out all of life’s crucial activities in close proximity to where we live. Paris and leading cities around the world have embraced this concept. This book is must reading for mayors, urbanists and everyone who cares about cities”. 

“During her re-election as Mayor of Paris in 2020, the 15-Munute City was at the heart of Anne Hidalgo’s campaign, in which I was heavily involved”

“With his new book Carlos Moreno provides a major contribution to architects, urban planners and city authorities by proposing pragmatic solutions for humanizing cities in all climatic environments and all 5 continents. Restore proximity in today’s urban landscapes is a program capable of ameliorating the quality of life and the well being of people. Innovative ideas and urban planing approaches are a hope for achieving social cohesion missing today when social, economic and environmental inequalities threaten communities worldwide and disproportionally affect the poor. I congratulate the author and hope that the book in english will reach a larger audience and be read not only by professionals but also politicians”.

“The simple power of proximity — making sure we have more things we need and want close by — is one of the most important bedrocks of better city-making, and no city has presented it better than Paris under the leadership of Anne Hidalgo and supported by the concepts of Carlos Moreno. More cities and communities are translating this critical concept into real urban change, and that’s a really important thing for our future. We have Carlos to thank for that.” 

“Carlos Moreno rescues the forgotten paths of a Humanist, Solidarity and Inclusive Urbanism, anchored in the circular economy, respectful of all the eco-systems that make up the complexity of a city and inclusive, anchored in the circular economy, respectful of all the eco-systems that make up the complexity of a city”

“My dear Carlos, I fully admire your work”

“By placing the citizen at the heart of urban planning, Professor Moreno unveils an innovative exploration of the 15-Minute City concept. This transformative approach reshapes our cities and communities, making them better and happier places to live, work, and thrive.”

 

“Carlos’s concept of a 15-minute city is simple—and powerful. Half of all urban homes that will exist within our children’s lives do not exist today. We have a magnificent opportunity to build, and to improve today’s cities, following the exquisite advice in this book. Everyone who likes people and cities should read it, especially decision makers.”

“What we intuitively know is essential to urban life is much too often lost or forgotten – it has become invisible to the eye. Being able to interpret these basic human needs into concept, and translating that concept into policy, is the genius of the 15-Minute City. Instead of seeking to create a formula, a design manual, Prof. Moreno is formulating what is essential for life in the cities to thrive: Proximity”.

“Cities have been for millennia prodigious engines of commerce and culture, yet nowadays they are mostly an unqualified mess of cars, long commutes, soullessness and stress. The “15-minutes city” narrates convincingly the electrifying possibilities of a different city life, one that re-inscribes humanness, proximity, connections and wellbeing at the center of the urban fabric. 

“Carlos Moreno’s highly inspiring book is an essential work for renewing urban planning frameworks and practices. As a performance piece, it is a veritable guide to imagining desirable sustainable urban futures”

“Through this book, Carlos Moreno guides us to a world at a human scale, redesigned to bring urbanized spaces back to the people that inhabit them. The concept of the 15-min city inspires us to transform our cities so that quality of life and well-being is put at the center. No doubt that this idea has been and will be embraced by so many cities in Europe and elsewhere as one of the paradigms of how cities are confronting the climate crisis.”

“Carlos Moreno’s work on the 15-minute city combines a wonderfully clear and even old-fashioned idea — that we should all be able to get around our neighborhoods and easily reach most of the people and things we need within a “happy proximity” — with cutting-edge scientific findings on urban networks and complex adaptive systems. I think that’s why this work has broken through to a global audience, and started a much-needed debate about the mistakes we’ve made and the reforms we will need.  We have to do better — and we can, as this important book demonstrates.”  

The 15-minute City popularized by Professor Carlos Moreno proposes a positive and comprehensive approach for the ecological revolution that humanity urgently needs to adopt. In early 2020, C40 was the first global organization to support this concept, encouraging mayors across the world to adopt the 15-minute city concept as part of their green and just transition. Today, we are joining forces with Professor Carlos Moreno to call for a new model of urbanism that is built in harmony with people and nature.”

“When I think about Carlos Moreno’s 15-minute city concept, it is more than just a novel way to organize our urban communities. What Carlos really teaches us is that we must think and act differently in order to create a better life for everyone who lives in cities. It’s a bonus that he proposes a formula that can deliver a better future for all of us. Bravo, Carlos!”

“Carlos Moreno’s work joins and builds upon a great tradition of urban thinking and activism, asking and answering this basic question: How is it best to live in cities?

The state of our planet — and perhaps of humanity itself — hinges upon how we shape and manage urban centers. Carlos Moreno has defined clear visions of the way forward.”Building on the great work of his predecessors — Lewis Mumford, Jane Jacobs, Camillo Sitte, and others — Carlos Moreno lays out a clear and compelling course for the world’s cities, today and well into the future.”

“Beyond the confines of car-centric celebrations, it becomes evident that our planet would find greater happiness in embracing this alternative. The narrative of the 15-minute city unfolds as a remarkable tale of transformative urban planning. It champions sustainability, resilience, and an elevated quality of life, all while drawing inspiration from the rich tapestry of cultural and social values. In this journey, I take immense pride in my affiliation with a network of visionary leaders like Carlos Moreno from across the globe who share an unwavering commitment to this cause.”

“Prof Carlos Moreno is a trailblazer, a visionary mind who has boldly reimagined urban life, prioritizing people over vehicles. In “The 15-Minute City,” his life’s work and research come together to offer a groundbreaking vision for the future of urban living.”

“Living in humane, verdant and traditional streets in which it is easy and pleasant to walk or cycle and which don’t break up a town into artificially separate zones is the natural human condition. We now also know that it supports happier, healthier and more sociable lives in which we tread more lightly upon the planet. What was once a ripple of conjecture has become a storm surge of evidence. This important and beautiful book sets out the journey back from cities scarred by traffic-modernism and how we can restitch our towns for the benefit of people, place and planet.”

“Professor Moreno’s vision of people-centred urbanism, based on proximity, accessibility and mixed-use, is crucial to reducing emissions, achieving our sustainable development goals, and building a better future for all.’’

“Carlos Moreno integrates with his book of unique value the philosophies of Aristotle and Plato into contemporary urban challenges, advocating for cities to prioritize human well-being and happy proximity over vehicular dominance. Drawing from the Athens Charter of 1933 and Platonic theories of constant flow and unchangeability, he envisions cities where communities and pedestrian-friendly designs coalesce within a 15-minute reach of constant flow of  the perceptible World  and the  unchangeability of the conceivable World”.

Have you always wondered why the juvenile Le Corbusier with his inhuman doctrine of „zoning, car-friendly-city, machine-a habiter“, pronounced at the Athens CIAM 1933, had the impudent success that all colonial countries have since then experienced on their own bodies? The answer is as brutal as sobering: the cutting-edge „Six Goals for Urban Ecology postulated by Walter Gropius, his wife Ise and Sigfried Giedion at the Zürich CIAM 1931 were erased by Adolf Hitler’s seizure of power. 90 years later Carlos Moreno finally offers us the toolbox for a mapping and programming of this displaced – but not lost – “Urban Ecology“.

It’s no coincidence that, at the height of the health crisis linked to the Covid-19 epidemic, the City of Paris appointed an elected official to be responsible for the city of the quarter-hour. It’s a sign of the relevance of Carlos Moreno’s eponymous concept. The idea is all the more relevant in that it responds to the concept of resilience, which has taken hold in cities around the world, highlighting the need for proximity and accessibility to public services on a daily basis. The 15-MinuteCiity is not an end in itself, but can be the common thread running through a programme of urban transformation that will make it possible to achieve a resilient, sustainable and peaceful city.

“We need a radical transformation of the spaces we inhabit. In this great work, Carlos Moreno brilliantly proposes making proximity and the humanization of our cities the key drivers in the urban revolution we have to promote. Cities to celebrate life. So let´s get down to it!” 

“Suddenly we realized that what we assumed to be inevitable in cities was avoidable: traffic, pollution, unnecessary travel, inequalities, concentrations of wealth in some areas and chronic lack of services in others. If there is a positive legacy of the pandemic era I would say that this is it. Having imagined what until recently was unimaginable. Carols Moreno’s 15-minute city is perhaps the one that most represented this possible breakthrough, and the fact that it’s making its way around the world is great news”

“Carlos Moreno has been able to synthesize in a single concept, the 15-Minte City, the reinvention of proximities, with sustainable and inclusive cities. He has broken the mold, spreading quickly and globally, a change in the urban model that in the past would have required decades.

The 15-Minte City will help save the planet by developing sustainable and livable cities”

“People will be happier, they will live in a better world, thanks to the search for mixed, compact and accessible cities. The ¨City of 15 minutes¨ is a path towards cities for life.

Knowing and understanding the thinking that Carlos Morano and his team have built, brings us closer to a better life”

“Carlos Moreno is a superb human being and a remarkable multidisciplinary scientist.

His research and work reveal the importance of proximity in our cities.

While the quarter-hour city is now a world-renowned concept, it is first and foremost a philosophy for living happily in our cities.

The proximity of services, urbanisation that favours human relations, soft mobility and the strengthening of social ties are at the heart of the urban harmony demonstrated and desired by the quarter-hour city that Carlos Moreno tirelessly promotes”

“Professor Moreno’s upcoming book reimagines compact city strategies to enhance quality of life, blending traditional concepts with contemporary challenges of climate change, sustainability, and global reach of internet and AI technologies to create extensive virtual communities that complement physical ones.
Though automobiles will remain crucial in suburbs, exurbs, and rural areas, they should not apply to densely populated urban areas. Moreno’s vision is not an outright rejection of automobiles, but a misunderstanding of the fundamental principles he and other urbanists promote.
To appreciate his ideas, read his book and explore the concepts firsthand.”

“Carlo’s work has not only sought to reshape, transition and transform the city of Paris, but the 15 minute city concept has emerged into a global cities vision that is seeking to create cities that enable people to have everything they need to live, work and play within 15 minutes of where they live. The concept has developed to create the idea of delivering green and thriving neighbourhoods that will enable our cities to deliver on climate targets, address urban consumption patterns that are unsustainable and contribute to emissions and waste reduction and deliver the social, recreational and community infrastructure and services needed to create inclusive and thriving neighbourhoods. This is truly seminal work that will transform cities around the world.”