Timeless urban design: the 15-Minute City and Yazd’s historic Fahadan neighborhood

The concept of the 15-Minute City has gained global traction as a contemporary urban planning approach emphasizing proximity, accessibility, and functional diversity. However, these principles are not entirely new; they are deeply rooted in historical urbanism, particularly within traditional cities shaped by local socioeconomic, cultural, and environmental conditions. This study examines the extent to which the historic urban fabric of Yazd, Iran – specifically the Fahadan neighborhood – represents the spatial logic of the 15-Minute City. Using GIS-based spatial and statistical analysis, we evaluated Fahadan’s spatial organization (filled-to-empty space ratio, street hierarchy), land use diversity (quantified through the Entropy Index), and proximity to key amenities (assessed through network and service area analyses). Results indicate a compact, mixed-use and pedestrian-oriented morphology, where all residential uses are within a 5-minute walk of religious and cultural uses, 78.53% are within a 5-minute walk of shops and 67.74% within reach of green spaces. However, educational and healthcare services exhibit lower accessibility, with healthcare remaining beyond the 15-minute walking threshold for some residential uses. These findings demonstrate that traditional Iranian urbanism inherently reflects the principles of the 15-Minute City, achieved through context-sensitive, climate-responsive, and socially cohesive design.