Before the onset of COVID-19, awareness around the issue of loneliness was rising globally as people became attuned to its impact, particularly on city dwellers. Stark statistics revealed that loneliness can increase someone’s risk of premature death by 30% and that more than 9 million adults in the UK are either always or often lonely.
In this online event organised by The Building Society, we will hear from the Future Spaces Foundation on the role the built environment plays in facilitating social cohesion. The physical backdrop to our lives has a huge effect on how unified or isolated we feel day to day, and particularly in light of the pandemic. It’s crucial that we reckon with the confluence of urban factors that erode opportunities for social cohesion and put city dwellers at particular risk of loneliness.
How can we shape the physical spaces around us to improve human connections?
Sara Veale, Managing Editor of the Future Spaces Foundation, will outline the Foundation’s research into urban loneliness, presenting ideas for reshaping our cities’ infrastructure to improve social cohesion. The insights and recommendations from the 2019 report Kinship in the City features contributions from charities, psychologists, designers and individuals who have been affected by loneliness.
It’s an opportunity to explore the power cities have to lift us up, promoting unity and kinship through considered design, policy and social enterprise.
About the Future Spaces Foundation
The Future Spaces Foundation is Make’s research and development arm. Its aim is to generate new thinking and research to inform the design of the spaces we inhabit.
About The Building Society
The Building Society is a purpose driven co-working and collaboration space for the built environment. Hosted and led by Structural and Civil Engineers Elliott Wood, this 12,000sqft of flexible office space, is supported by talks, initiatives and a member network to work together, collaborate, debate and lead change.
