Shrink the City: The 15-Minute Urban Experiment and the Cities of the Future

by Natalie Whittle Narrated by Lorna Bennett

Overview

Cities define the lives of all those who call them home: where they go, how they get there, and how they spend their time. But what if we built our cities differently? What if we could get a cashback on time and use it to live in a new way?



In this fascinating, meticulously researched and reported, and readily accessible book, longtime Financial Times journalist Natalie Whittle looks at metropolises all over the world to consider the idea of the fifteen-minute city, defined as a city that is designed so that everyone who lives there can reach everything they need within fifteen minutes on foot or by bike. Whittle helps us to understand its pros, its cons, and its potential to revolutionize modern living. With global warming reaching a crisis point and the post-pandemic world bringing a previously unimaginable decline in commuting, Whittle's timely book serves as a call to reflect on the "hows" and "whys" of our basic relationship to our neighborhoods, cars, all of our daily comings and goings.



Building her study by carefully considering how we use space and time, Whittle traverses both, collecting models from ancient Athens to modern Paris and New York that demonstrate how one idea could change our daily lives-and the world-for good.

Editorial Reviews

Dickson Despommier

"Shrink the City makes the case for creating smaller cities within big cities. Whittle describes a series of small, densely occupied circles within cities that would allow people to mingle naturally and get to know one another in their neighborhoods. Today, many city dwellers don’t have easy access to parks, libraries, theaters, restaurants, schools, and so on. Putting the ideas in this book to practice would cut down the time it takes to get to these places, enriching the lives of city residents, and transforming megalopolises from discouraging human interaction to encouraging familiarity and friendship."

SNACK magazine

"An exciting and accessible read [that] weaves together the anecdotal with thorough research and academic investigation."

Product Details

BN ID:	2940191970936
Publisher:	Tantor Audio
Publication date:	09/10/2024
Edition description:	Unabridged