Designing loneliness out of the built environment — LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE AOTEAROA

By Jack Earl

Humans crave interaction and belonging — yet many of the built environments we’ve created are failing to meet these needs, writes infrastructure consultancy, WSP.

As curators of the built environment we need to consider the creation of inclusive spaces that foster connection. Too often we design with a one-size-fits all approach, rather than empowering individuals with diverse needs to participate in ways that work for them.

Loneliness is a cause for great current and future concern within New Zealand with 16.6% of the population aged 15 and over reporting feeling lonely all, most or some of the time. Social isolation can be as damaging to our health as smoking 15 cigarettes a day and a meta-analysis by Brigham Young University of 148 health studies found that feelings of loneliness increase mortality risk by 26%, while social isolation and living alone increased it by 29% and 32% respectively.

To address this, WSP has partnered with the Helen Clark Foundation to produce a report that looks at the issue of loneliness and recommends policy planks that allow social connection to thrive in Aotearoa.

WSP urban designer Jack Earl considers how the neighbourhoods we live in either enable or hinder social interactions, and looks at new approaches to foster connection.

The history of urban planning highlights how built environments in Aotearoa fail to facilitate social interactions. For instance, urban planning during the 20th century in America was greatly influenced by automobile movement. Early examples of this urban planning include Frank Lloyd Wright’s Broadacre City project, which became the traditional American suburb (and subsequently ours), driving people out of cities and into sprawling and disconnected suburbs. Additionally, Robert Moses promoted the development of highways, which severed viable and lively existing urban communities and neighbourhoods.

Today the movement of the car today still shapes and severs the built environment. As a result we’ve inherited a legacy of poor integration and limited access to surrounding land uses, inadequate pedestrian and cycling infrastructure, and a lack of inviting social spaces.

Social interactions within built environments can be facilitated by providing quality spaces, connected networks and accessible activities/uses that allow people to casually and safely, interact or bump into each other. These can be planned and designed through effective community engagement and co-design, temporal interventions that reallocate road space from the car to people places, safe, connected and accessible public open spaces and street networks, residential density and mixed-use developments that are within proximity of public transport and active mode transport options. Places that can facilitate such interactions, are more likely to expand social relationships between individuals and stimulate an overall sense of community.

In contrast to traditional suburban areas that rely on a car to access open spaces, schools, shopping and work, Hobsonville Point in Auckland offers a beacon of hope. The area has a mix of medium and high density living and has been deliberately designed to promote community interaction so that it's easy to get to know neighbours.

A 2019 National Science Challenge paper, Living at Density in Hobsonville Point: Resident Perceptions, found that residents expressed a strong sense of community in Hobsonville Point, well matched to the vision of creating a strong and vibrant community. Researchers found that living at higher density in Hobsonville Point contributed positively towards housing satisfaction, leading to strong feelings of wellbeing. Of special importance is the key role that the high-quality public spaces and amenities play in housing satisfaction.

Hobsonville Point is a modern example of facilitating natural social interactions within suburban greenfield development.

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A rejuvenated CBD in Greymouth now attracts locals and tourists alike

However, the other great challenge is to facilitate social interactions within our existing built environments. These are often constrained and have historically been planned around the car. In my work I’ve been involved in retrofitting these environments to reconnect communities.

Key to this is taking a holistic approach to planning and working to understand the core values of a place. This has allowed us to facilitate meaningful conversations about movement and place trade-offs to improve integration between transport and other functions

One project that stands out for me is the spatial framework for Greymouth’s CBD we carried out with the Grey District Council. Engagement with the local community revealed that 87% found the CBD uninviting, and 82% believed that the CBD didn’t reflect their identity. Our response was to balance movement and place in the CBD, we organised interventions within the spatial framework around a centrally located and connected public space.

To maximise the public space, we transformed a typical road designed for the functions of a car, into a shared space environment. The outcome is a 1750m2 high-quality public space where local people meet for lunch, where tourists engage, local food trucks operate, and the Council holds regular, well-attended events. Additionally, this public space has catalysed new cafes, jobs, refurbishment of heritage buildings, renewal of a hotel, and early plans for a cultural development.

How can the built environment facilitate more social connection and enhance wellbeing?

Urban planning that includes mixed land uses and density: Compact, fine grained and mixed use neighbourhoods offer a wider range of possibilities when it comes to shops, amenities, local employment and residential living choice within the same local area. Additionally, site and building design should enhance our neighbourhoods by addressing the street, enabling passive surveillance for personal safety and providing for shared private spaces to further encourage social connectivity.
Lively public spaces: Secure, attractive, and active spaces provide focal points in the community where people can gather and interact. Pedestrian pocket parks and plazas are examples. The design of such spaces should also be responsive to local cultural context and aesthetically pleasing.
Streets for people: Safe, accessible and attractive streets for people of all ages and abilities includes well located pedestrian facilities such as seating, drinking fountains, attractive planting, public conveniences, wide footpaths, trees that provide shade, and integration with surrounding land uses.
Opportunities for interaction: The built environment can foster a sense of community through enabling day to day interaction between people, nature and other activities. This happens on streets and within shops, cafes, community buildings and public spaces. Planning and designing these holistically so walking and cycling to and between them is safe and convenient is key.
Multi modal - not just a car: Encouraging active modes and public transport in our neighbourhoods rather than prioritising car movement can be achieved through better integrated land use planning and designing legible and logical connections to provide a high quality and safe user experience. Providing appropriate infrastructure such as bus shelters, physical cycleway buffers and accessible pedestrian crossings is also important.
Access to parks and public sports facilities: Better accessibility to public spaces and facilities can result in greater likelihood of their use and thus to more social activity. Sports can assist in creating communities with high levels of positive social outcomes, which can make them more resilient to negative outcomes.
Engagement is key: Participation in the shaping of the built environment fosters feelings of empowerment and belonging