Rather than trying to meet all of a community's needs within a one-minute radius, Sweden's Street Moves pilot program gives residents the power to decide how street space gets used.
Move over, "15-minute city," writes Feargus O'Sullivan for Bloomberg. Sweden is pioneering the "one-minute city," a hyper-local vision inspired by the push for decentralizing urban services and creating dense, walkable communities where residents can find almost everything they need within minutes.
Locally-focused schemes such as the 15-minute city and Barcelona's famous superblocks gained steam in 2020 as shelter-in-place orders made people hyper-aware of their immediate neighborhoods and emphasized the need for locally available services and local infrastructure that improves quality of life. Sweden's approach focuses even more closely on "the space outside your front door — and that of your neighbors adjacent and opposite," according to Dan Hill, director of strategic design for Vinnova, Sweden's national innovation agency.
The project, dubbed Street Moves, is being piloted in four sites around Stockholm, where residents can decide how street space is used and allocated through community workshops and consultations. The goal isn't to make everything available within one minute, but rather to reimagine the patches of street immediately outside the home as "critical connecting spaces for communities" and not just "places to move and store cars." If successful, Sweden plans to implement the program on every street in the country by 2030.
FULL STORY: Make Way for the ‘One-Minute City’
The Mall Is Dead — Long Live the Mall
The American shopping mall may be closer to its original vision than ever.
The Paradox of American Housing
How the tension between housing as an asset and as an essential good keeps the supply inadequate and costs high.
Report: Las Vegas, Houston Top List of Least Affordable Cities
The report assesses the availability of affordable rental units for low-income households.
Anchorage Leaders Debate Zoning Reform Plan
Last year, the city produced the fewest new housing units in a decade.
How to Protect Pedestrians With Disabilities
Public agencies don’t track traffic deaths and injuries involving disabled people, leaving a gap in data to guide safety interventions.
Colorado Town Fills Workforce Housing Need With ‘Dorm-Style’ Housing
Median rent in Steamboat Springs is $4,000 per month.
City of Yakima
City of Auburn
Baylands Development Inc.
HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research
Mpact Transit + Community
HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research
City of Birmingham, Alabama
City of Laramie, Wyoming
Town of Zionsville
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.