How 15-min City, Tactical Urbanism, and Superblock Concepts Are Affecting Major Cities in the Post-Covid-19 Era?

Abstract

This chapter analyses three strategies proposed to redefine current urban policies to deal with issues inherited from the contemporary city evolution. The case study analysis focuses on applying the concepts of 15-min City, Tactical Urbanism, and Superblock in global cities such as Barcelona, Shanghai, and Milan. Have these cities changed the urban environment and mobility patterns dealing with health, social, and economic inequities? Which have been the impacts of urban regeneration, governance, and inclusion towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goal 11, emphasizing the need for inclusivity and equitability in urban areas? These questions find the answer in three main aspects. First, the regeneration of the existing built environment; second, short-, medium-, and long-term governance issues; third, the concerns about the possible risk of gentrification. An introductive part explains the adopted methodology, follows an analysis of the three case studies, and, eventually, remarks on what we learned. Two are the primary outcomes: a comparison between different global cities and diverse ways to deal with the impacts of people-centered solutions for urban environments and an evaluation of 15-min City, Tactical Urbanism, and Superblocks feasible solutions for sustainable urban transition.

Handbook on Shrinking cities

“…Declining cities and territories demonstrated to be vulnerable areas to be hit the most by crises, such as in the case of the 2007-2008 world recession (Großmann et al, 2013), but these disruptions constitute also an opportunity to rethink the way to mend fragile territories. Globally, cities and citizens have dealt with the severe consequence of COVID-19, such as a new wave of economic recession, along with the existing issue tied to the climate impact and spreading socio-economic disparities (Fabris et al, 2023). By considering the specific characters of shrinking cities, the pandemic affected local employment and started a recession, with consequent loss of jobs occurring at the same time as the shutdown of workplaces forced remote work (OECD, 2020; Mariotti, Di Marino, Bednář, 2022), with an increasing demand for urban green spaces (Maury-Mora, Gómez-…”