One of the explorations that I made, as I wanted to dig deeper in some of the insights from the summer research, was to create a grid pattern of blocks. Then, as an added layer, I created a pattern of circles, representing 1.5 km radius ̶ which is a 15-minute walk ̶ and 3 km radius or a 15-minute bike ride.
This simple grid represents a rather large city of 324 km2 ̶ around the size of Philadelphia ̶ . If we wanted to create a multi-center city, in this grid that would mean at least around 13 centers that could provide with all the services needed. This exploration of course does not take density into consideration, just area.
This would mean that a city like Vancouver (114.97 km2) would only require a minimum of 4 to 5 centers. In contrast, Vancouver is divided in 23 official neighbourhoods, a way to break up the city’s geographic area for delivering services and resources.