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15-Minute City: What the pandemic taught us about city design!

If you didn’t know this already, Covid-19 showed us how healthcare plays a relatively small role in the overall health of populations (to be exact, around 10%). What is more important are the social determinants of our health: the conditions under which we work, live and grow old. “By confining us to our immediate surroundings, the pandemic has made some of the root causes of ill health – as well as the inequities between communities – all the more apparent.”, says this post by The Possible. In fact, people that lived in greener, safer areas, with easy access to grocery shops, pharmacies, hospitals and other services, were healthier and better able to address the new challenges that the C-19 pandemic presented. Although it is possible that other factors- such as income or job-security – mediated this relationship, it is clear that city design can be used as a protective factor for good health!

What can we do to improve the overall physical and mental health of our communities? We need to get serious about redesigning our cities in a way that encourages social interaction, physical exercise and safe mobility. The Possible claims that the design that we should follow is based on the 15-minute city concept that was suggested by Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo.

“The question shouldn’t be ‘should we live in cities or not’, it should be ‘how should our cities be designed so that we can live healthy, equitable and sustainable lives in them’.”

Click here for the read what this plan entails!

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