Angels 2nd Class Podcast: Design to Connect Leads to Good Mental Health

Loneliness isn’t depressing, but do you know what is, extensive loneliness and extensive isolation.  It is hard to imagine in a society where we have wide-ranging ways to connect – cell phones at the ready, Facebook, email, texts, and countless social media platforms, we have a loneliness crisis.

As design researcher and architect, Erin Peavey describes it, we don’t merely have a mental and physical health crisis in society, we have serious social health issues looming around us.

Erin details how our environment needs to be transformational, and architects need to reflect on that.  We are wired for social connection.   There is data on how the lack of social connections link to a negative health impact from loneliness, which can even include obesity and smoking.

Who does she design for when she works with healthcare facilities?  Erin says it is not just the patients who she has in mind when creating places for interactions.  Also, as an architect, she explains, don’t think architectural design is just simply about physical safety.  Mental safety is also a concern.  Remember, spaces and places, even light and furniture effect the way people feel and behave.

Listen in as she shares her PANACHe way to create a space that offers positive impact.