Adapting the ‘15-minute city’ concept to medium-sized urban contexts: A case study in Desio, Italy

As global concerns about public health and environmental sustainability continue to grow, urban planners are developing strategies to promote active and public transportation as alternatives to private car use. Reducing car dependency can offer significant benefits, including lower carbon emissions and less traffic congestion. In this context, the ‘15-minute city’ is gaining momentum as an urban planning concept designed to optimise the population's daily mobility: the model aims to ensure that essential urban functions and facilities are reachable within a 15-minute walk or cycling. Starting with a bibliometric analysis and a literature overview about the ‘15-minute city’ topic, the paper applies this framework to Desio, a medium-sized municipality in the Milan metropolitan area, Italy. Most analysed studies focused on large metropolitan cities, while this research wants to investigate how the paradigm can be adapted in a commuter-oriented urban context, where local accessibility and regional mobility coexist. A network-based accessibility analysis was used to assess the spatial relationships between the distribution of population, split by age groups, and essential services (educational, health, and social facilities). Results reveal spatial mismatches between demographic concentrations and service accessibility, particularly in peripheral and edge neighbourhoods and among elderly residents. This study expands on how the ‘15-minute city’ framework could work in medium-sized towns, and stresses the need for multi-scalar governance, social equity, and inclusive planning strategies to achieve human-centred urban environments.