Plans for the “10-minute city” in Seoul, the South Korean capital, are revealed

The idea of ​​a “15-minute city”, in which all residents can reach work and leisure activities on foot or by bicycle from their homes, gained traction among urban planners during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Now, a group of architects is planning an even more ambitious neighborhood in South Korea’s capital, Seoul: a 10-minute city.

Named “Project H1”, the project is ready to transform an old industrial area into an interconnected “smart” city.

Combining eight residential buildings with co-working offices and study spaces, the 125-acre neighborhood is also set to house entertainment venues, fitness centers, swimming pools and even hydroponic urban farms.

Designed by Dutch architectural firm UNStudio and backed by Hyundai Development Company (a real estate company owned by the conglomerate behind the automaker of the same name), the neighborhood will also be completely car-free.

A press release for the project stated that “all the conveniences of the city” will be within a 10-minute walk of people’s homes.

In a statement, UNStudio co-founder Ben van Berkel said the residents’ “daily life experience” is the project’s “top priority”.

“We do this by including a rich density of field experiences, which offer a wide range of options for how people can spend their life, work and leisure time, thus also saving the time needed to travel elsewhere in the city. – because with the time that is saved, more time is created”, he said.

A spokesman for UNStudio confirmed that the project has been given the green light to proceed, but did not reveal when it is likely to unravel.

For now, a series of CGI renderings hint at what the neighborhood will be like, with public squares, gardens, green roofs and “natural zones” connected by pedestrian walkways.

The architects also said clean energy will be generated at the site, while rain catchment and storage systems are being designed to reduce water use.

The concept of the “city of 15 minutes” was first proposed by the French-Colombian academic Carlos Moreno in 2016, and was more recently popularized by the mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, who proposed making the French capital a “ville du quart d’ heure” – a quarter-hour city – during his recent re-election campaign.

Critics have suggested that the concept could cause gentrification by further concentrating wealth in the most accessible and convenient neighborhoods.

The convenience of “15-minute” neighborhoods can, in turn, result in high house prices, which would exclude low-income and marginalized communities.

But the Covid-19 pandemic has generated growing interest in the concept. With people around the world working from home and avoiding public transport, planners have begun to drive pedestrians through the streets and re-imagine the way cities manage dense populations.

Writing in the academic journal Smart Cities earlier this year, Moreno said: “The emergence of this pandemic has exposed the vulnerability of cities… and the need for a radical rethink, where innovative measures need to be adapted to ensure that urban residents are able to cope and continue with its core activities, including cultural ones, to ensure cities remain resilient and livable in the short and long term.”

He added that “further research is now needed to show how the idea and its elements can be replicated in cities within the global south.”

*This article has been translated. Read the original in English