A sustainable urban living model centred on the idea that city residents should be able to access all of their daily living needs within a 15-minute walk or cycle ride has won the €100,000 Obel Award.

Judges said Carlos Moreno’s 15-minute city vision was “beautiful and intuitive” and had the potential to vastly improve the lives of hundreds of millions of people worldwide, as well as helping to create a healthier planet in the process.

The model calls for cities to be designed, or redesigned, so that housing, work, food, education, health services, culture and leisure are in much closer proximity – greatly reducing car traffic, CO2 emissions and increasing residents’ health and wellbeing. Moreno describes it as “chrono-urbanism”.

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