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My 15 Minute City

I am excited to announce the launch of a new project entitled, My 15 Minute City! This project will be a series of short videos providing a ...

Saturday, April 10, 2021

My 15 Minute City

I am excited to announce the launch of a new project entitled, My 15 Minute City!

This project will be a series of short videos providing a virtual experience of walking My 15 Minute City, which is downtown Kitchener (DTK), Ontario.  

In each episode I will explore parts of the downtown within a 15 minute walking radius of the intersection of King and Queen Streets.  During these walks I will apply various ideas and questions from the urban scholarly literature.  The overall question to be addressed is:  

What makes a successful urban walking experience?

These episodes will be Youtube videos, no more than six minutes long, consisting of a filmed walk narrated by the author.  The video will be edited to include supporting maps, images and additional narrative.  The Youtube channel will be complemented with an online, interactive Story Map that will locate each episode and provide additional materials.  The intended audience of the project includes both the general public as well as students of the city, at all levels.

Here are some the proposed topics for episodes of My 15 Minute City.  These are not their final titles or sequence.

  • The 15 Minute City - the concept and UN Sustainable Development Goal 11
  • Change and memory - powerful influences that shape our walking experience
  • Is terrain a factor in DTK? - the lay of the land and the flow of water   
  • Transition and displacement - who gains and who loses?
  • Imperialism and colonialism - whose voices are inscribed in the cityscape?
  • Pollution - lesser known stories of brownfields, coal tar and toxic spills
  • Power of Place - the generative properties of place
  • Placemaking - making memorable places for people
  • Public space assessment - measuring the unmeasurable
  • Urban palimpsest - deciphering King Street
  • Navigating the city - what cognitive neuroscience tells us about wayfinding
  • Urban design - the serial view, human scale, prospect and refuge
  • The sidewalk ballet - the dynamics and tensions of public space 
  • Greenspace - is there enough?
  • Intensification - a place and a skyline transformed 
  • Walking with - walk along stories with colleagues, friends and neighbours
  • Building an inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable city - how well are we doing?

The first two episodes are currently in production.  I will publish the project when the first few are complete, hopefully in May, 2021.  Subsequent episodes will be rolled out over the summer.

To get a better idea of the project see My 15 Minute City StoryMap 

As episodes are completed they will be posted on my Youtube channel.

Thanks for viewing My 15 Minute City.  

Bob Sharpe






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