1. We Are WSP
  2. Insights
  3. Planning out loneliness

Planning out loneliness - Rejuvenating Greymouth

The built environment of the neighbourhoods we live in either enables or hinders social interactions. With social isolation and loneliness, a growing trend, Jack Earl WSP Urban Designer, looks at new approaches to foster connection. 
map marker New Zealand | Monday, 28 September 2020
Reading Time : 3:00
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. 
Download whitepaper

More on this subject

Why Net Zero should be business as usual

October 2020 | 10 minutes

Can We Make Net Zero Business As Usual?

Feature
Resources , Climate
Thn-Web-VZ-ITS-Article3

October 2020

Effective Intelligent Transport Systems Integrate Human Factors

Feature
Mobility , Places , Society
thn-victorian-desalination-plant

October 2020

The Future Ready Business of Water Security: Preparing for the Next Drought

Australia
Feature
Climate , Society , Resilience
thn-justice-precinct-chch-01

October 2020 | 4 minutes

How architecture has influenced Christchurch's rebuild

New Zealand
Feature
Resilience , Places , Society
thn-road-to-net-zero-better-normal

October 2020

Who’s Driving? The Road To Net Zero

Feature
Resources
thn-tackling-urban-air-pollution

October 2020 | 12 minutes

Respiratory Failure - Tackling Urban Air Pollution

Feature
Climate , Resources
thn-insights-designing-built-environment

October 2020

Designing the Built Environment Through a Wider Lens

Australia
Society , Climate , Resilience
thn-take-the-electric-bus

October 2020 | 3 minutes

Take the (electric) bus: Public transport and air pollution

Feature
Climate , Resources
thn-Web-Asset-Mgmt-Resilience

October 2020

Asset Management Prepares Organizations for Unexpected Events

Feature
Resilience , Places , Society , Mobility , Resources
thn-accommodation-loneliness

September 2020 | 3:00

Designing loneliness out of student accommodation

New Zealand
White Paper
Resources , Society
thn-boost-or-block-better-normal

September 2020 | 10 minutes

Will COVID-19 boost or block carbon reduction ambitions?

Feature
Climate , Resources
thn-Safe-hospitals-better-normal

September 2020 | 13 minutes

After Covid-19, How Can We Make Hospitals Safe?

Feature
Places , Society