Loneliness is a Real Problem, but Researchers and Urban Planners Have Found Ways to Help
It's time we rethink urban planning and start designing our communities to encourage a sense of community to combat loneliness
Hiya!
We’re facing many crises right now, everything from climate change to loneliness. To make it through, we’ll need to tap into one of our most extraordinary human talents: ingenuity through creativity. We also need solutions that address multiple issues, rather than individual solutions for each problem. Thankfully, ideas are already flowing, and many are taking action.
I’ve already written several articles about how urban planners are finding creative ways to design communities that work with, rather than against, nature — and hopefully help us adapt to climate change. Now, experts have identified another research-backed way changing our urban layouts can aid another crisis we’re facing — loneliness.
Rise in Loneliness
Experts have sounded the alarm over a rise in loneliness over the past few years, with some surveys finding that one in five Americans report feeling lonely every day. Many experts now consider loneliness to be a public health epidemic, with the former U.S. Surgeon General warning in 2023 that feelings of loneliness raise the risk of premature death to levels comparable to smoking 15 cigarettes a day.
Architect, researcher, and vice president and health and well-being design leader at the global firm, HKS Architects, Erin Peavey, told Juhie Bhatia of National Geographic that part of the reason we’re noticing the rise in loneliness now is because the pandemic made people more aware of their surroundings and helped destigmatize loneliness. She said:
“Over the last five-plus years, we’ve started to recognize that there are these structural factors that impact so much of our health, well-being, economic outcomes, etc, and that one of those is our physical and built environment.”
Most modern cities are designed to accommodate cars, with neighborhoods, workplaces, grocery stores, and other amenities spread out and requiring vehicles to access them. In other words, they aren’t easily walkable.
But over the last few years, as mental health challenges grow, experts are asking: What if we change urban designs to help us feel less alone?
Rethinking Urban Planning
Emma Avery, an urban planner and communication lead at a Canada-based consulting firm called Happy Cities, took it even further when she explained to Bhatia,
“We have housing unaffordability. We have the climate crisis. We have the crisis of social isolation and loneliness, and we really must work together to solve all these things at once.”
Changing up the layouts of our neighborhoods and cities, from isolation-based to community-driven, seems like a good place to start. Additionally, as we develop these new areas, we can incorporate eco-friendly designs. Julia Day, a partner at the global urban strategy firm Gehl, shared with Bhatia that,
“The built environment, which is everything from our streets to housing to transportation systems, is such an important piece of how we actually interact with each other. While addressing an epidemic requires multiple tools, changes to place design and programming are a key ingredient.”
All that said, it’s one thing to make this connection and another to know the best ways to approach it, as well as which changes will yield the best outcomes. After all, changing our urban designs isn’t fast, cheap, or easy to accomplish.
Tweaking Urban Designs
Being the creative and ingenious species we are, there’s no shortage of ideas for improving our communal layouts. Many are already coming into fruition, and as various cities implement these ideas, experts are compiling an ever-growing pile of evidence showing which methods and techniques best encourage positive mental health.
Now, architects, policymakers, urban planners, and other professionals involved in developing building plans can utilize this information to formulate strategies that facilitate spontaneous or meaningful interactions among community members.
For instance, in 2024, the nonprofit Foundation for Social Connection released a report showing that our built environment can either encourage or hinder meaningful social interactions, both deeply personal and brief encounters.
A key component in creating built environments that encourage social interactions is the concept of “third places,” which urban sociologists refer to as locations for informal gatherings that are neither home nor work, yet still foster a sense of community.
In her research, Peavey developed a series of evidence-based design guidelines that encourage social health, which she calls PANACHe — Personalization, Accessibility, Nature, Activation, Choice, and Human scale — which includes third places.
She told Bhatia that an Italian piazza is a great example of a third place because they’re open to the public (accessibility), have many social hubs ranging from restaurants to shops (activation and choice), are made from natural clay bricks and stones, and are often decorated with vegetation (nature). Peavey explained:
“When places can help us feel anchored and calmer, which is a huge part of what nature provides, it can help people feel more open.”
The effects of Peavey’s PANACHe methods can be seen at the University of California, San Diego’s student residential campus, which hosts various shared spaces for socializing and cooking, large windows overlooking common areas, and interconnected staircases.
After the renovations during the 2020-2021 school year, a study found an 8.2 percent decrease in students’ self-reported depression and a nearly 28 percent increase in student satisfaction with the new spaces.
Similarly, after analyzing over a decade of research, Avery at Happy Cities developed a “toolkit” of key design components that encourage positive social health, such as blending buildings into their surroundings and gradual transitions between private and public spaces.
Avery’s concepts were utilized in the development of Canada’s Urban Village in Vancouver, which features a three-story building with shared community spaces and 12 condo-style units, ranging in size from studio to three bedrooms. Following Avery’s toolkit, the buildings feature wide outdoor paths, social nooks, and a shared courtyard.
Happy Cities conducted surveys and interviews before and after people moved into the Urban Village to assess their physical and mental health, social connections, community engagement, and trust in their neighbours.
They found that within just six months of moving in, an incredible 100 percent of residents reported they never or rarely felt lonely, and 88 percent considered two or more neighbors to be friends. Avery explained to Bhatia,
“With loneliness it’s not necessarily always about a lack of social relationships, but it’s how satisfied you feel in those relationships.” That’s “why we’re really focused on creating these inviting spaces for people to pause and where they feel more open to connection and at their own pace.”
In 2023, Detroit, Massachusetts, Mayor Mike Duggan launched a $10 million project dubbed the “ShotStoppers” program, funded by the money Detroit received as part of President Joe Biden’s American Rescue Plan Act.
For the program, officials chose six community-based organizations whose goal was to decrease the number of murders and shootings in their assigned areas of the city using their violence prevention strategies.
One such organization is The People’s Action. Nedgus Vu, the group’s executive director, told Bhatia that their strategy involves forming relationships with young people who may be at risk of committing violence. He said,
“You have outreach workers who have lived, shared experiences that are the ones who establish these relationships, and because these relationships are genuine and sincere, they're able to refer them to get wraparound services such as substance abuse, job referrals, therapy.”
One year after the ShotStoppers program launched, all six areas have seen between 37 and 83 percent fewer shootings and homicides compared to the city-wide average. Unfortunately, the program’s funding will expire soon due to President Trump's decision to cut $11 billion in federal funds.
Obstacles Ahead
Urban planners face many challenges before such strategies can be implemented on a broader scale. Even attempting to turn design ideas into reality is a complex process.
I mean, we already have cities, and they’re already inhabited. It’s not as if we can simply relocate hundreds or thousands, let alone millions of people, while workers deconstruct a city and rebuild it differently.
Not to mention that urban areas are heavily regulated, with every change or addition negotiated among local and state governments, developers, and community members, who all have different and often conflicting interests.
Eric Klinenberg, a professor of sociology at New York University and author of Palaces for the People, explained to Bhatia that the role and value of having social infrastructure have become more recognized over the last decade. Still, recognition doesn’t always translate into more resources. He said:
“Investment in public spaces and social infrastructure remains stingy and uneven. Cuts to government social spending, on parks, schools, libraries, and public spaces, threaten to increase the threat of loneliness and isolation at the very moment people need stronger ties.”
Still, cities worldwide are finding ways to implement their ideas. Barcelona, in Spain, for example, has launched a 10-year plan to reduce loneliness by restructuring the city into communal spaces. The Without Loneliness plan in Seoul, South Korea, takes multiple approaches, including using convenience stores as third places. And New York City is implementing its Active Design Guidelines, which, in addition to promoting physical health, also include features that favor social interactions.
Peavey explained to Bhatia,
“When we can start to create places that foster trust and belonging and combat loneliness, that has so many different positive ripple impacts throughout our lives.”
As more cities implement similar programs, more cross-sector collaboration can occur, providing future urban planners with a wealth of evidence and strategies that promote connection and positive mental health.
Perspective Shift
Individualism has been on the rise for years — the belief, ideology, or culture in which people view themselves as more important than others, and typically make decisions that benefit their interests over those of other groups or communities — but now we’re reaching a tipping point.
Because while we are individuals, we are also highly social animals. Having relationships with other people is more than a luxury or a strategy for manipulating our way to whatever it is we want. We need quality relationships. We live longer and are physically and mentally better off when we cultivate communities. Cooperation and relationships with others make us happier, more creative, and smarter.
That said, the point of all this is not to say individualism is entirely bad and should be avoided altogether. The fact is that individualism and collectivism are two ends of a spectrum in which we exist. We are, after all, individuals as much as we are part of a larger whole. And as with many other spectrums in life, we thrive most when we find a balance in the middle.
We’ve been advocating for individualism for years, but it’s time to reassess our approach. One powerful way to achieve a healthier, more optimal balance is by restructuring how we live together, starting with our cities.
Interesting and wise.