How one firm’s engineers are aiming to ‘design out’ loneliness
IT COULD be re-thinking the length of time it takes for an older person to cross a road, or specifically designing public spaces to that people have more opportunities to simply bump into each other.
But a global engineering firm working in Yorkshire is putting the shape of our future society – and the possible problems it may create – in the heart of its designs.
Consultancy firm WSP, which plans everything from smallscale flat and housing developments to huge town planning and infrastructure schemes, is ensuring its work is ‘future ready’ by considering issues such as loneliness and our ageing population.
WSP UK’s director of sustainability, David Symons, said social isolation was a growing issue in cities, and for the past three or four years, the firm had challenged its engineers to tackle it.
“Many of the solutions for loneliness are perceived to be the responsibility of NGOs or local councils, like befriending services, but there’s actually a huge amount that we can do, as engineers, to design out loneliness,” he said. “For example, designing streets where it’s easier to walk than take the car, because if you’re walking, you are more likely to see and speak to people.
“Also, Department for Transport guidelines suggest that people cross the road at three miles per hour – that’s fine if you’re fit and healthy, but if you’re older and walk slower, that crossing time will not be sufficient. That will affect 20 per cent of the population – a proportion that is growing.”
Other ideas include designing things like cafes and open spaces into master plans, ensuring they are ready in the first phase of a development, and factoring communal space into tower blocks.
WSP’s ideas are being put into practice in Leeds, where it is working with developers Citu on 530 homes on the city’s South Bank, the Climate Innovation District.
Managing director of Citu, Chris Thompson, said: “From the earliest designs of the Climate Innovation District we wanted to create the kind of public realm that naturally would encourage residents to bump into one another, making it easy for them to get to know their neighbours and to help build a new community.
“For example, we are creating shared areas where we will have yoga platforms, hammocks, shared jetties into the river, as well as space where residents can tend gardens and vegetable plots together. When people are active they feel less isolated; seeing people around even if you aren’t engaged can help dispel that feeling of loneliness.”