Architect & Researcher
studying how place
shapes connection
I work at the intersection of design, environmental psychology, and public health — examining how the everyday environments we inhabit quietly shape our capacity to relate, to feel safe, and to belong.
20+
Years of practice
NYT
Featured research
5
Awards
HKS
Principal & SVP
Background
Facilitator · Practitioner
Strategic Advisor · Author
Podcast Host
→ Designed for Happiness column
→ HKS
I'm an architect — but not the skyscrapers-and-aesthetics kind. I study what places do to people. Specifically: why some environments make connection feel natural and others make it feel impossible, and what the science says we can do about it.
Erin Peavey, AIA is a researcher and architect whose work focuses on how built environments shape social health, well-being, and loneliness. She works at the intersection of design, environmental psychology, and public health, examining how everyday places influence connection, stress, and our capacity to relate—often in quiet, cumulative ways.
Drawing on research from environmental psychology, public health, and neuroscience, Erin translates evidence into practical design insights that help people feel safer, more supported, and better able to engage with others within the places they inhabit. She comes to this work as a facilitator, practitioner, strategic advisor, and author—helping organizations and communities understand the conditions that shape everyday life and social experience.
Erin is a Principal and Senior Vice President at HKS, where she advances health and well-being thinking across sectors and practice areas, bridging research and design to inform real-world outcomes. Her work emphasizes listening, community engagement, and co-creation, recognizing that environments are most effective when shaped in partnership with the people they serve.
She has served as an Industry Scholar with Cornell University’s Institute for Healthy Futures and co-led the Foundation for Social Connection’s 2024 report on the built environment and social health. Her research and writing have appeared in peer-reviewed journals and major media outlets including The New York Times, BBC Radio 4, Bloomberg, National Geographic, and Psychology Today, where she writes the column Designed for Happiness. She also hosts the podcast Shared Space, which explores how architecture and design shape health and human connection.
Erin is guided by a belief in the power of place to shape social connection and health by influencing the conditions people are repeatedly exposed to, not just the choices they make. Her forthcoming book examines why many modern environments quietly ask too much of us—and what it looks like when places get the conditions right.
Forthcoming Book · Island Press
Why Modern Environments Ask Too Much of Us
A new book examining how everyday places quietly erode our capacity for connection — and what it looks like when design gets the conditions right. Forthcoming from Island Press.
Island Press · Forthcoming
As seen in
The New York Times
BBC Radio 4
Bloomberg
National Geographic
Psychology Today
Recognition
Two decades of work at the intersection of design, neuroscience, and social health.
AIA Young Architects Award
American Institute of Architects
Arthur N. Tuttle Fellowship
AIA Academy of Architecture for Health
ENR Top Young Professional
Engineering News-Record · National
Rising Star
Healthcare Design Magazine
40 Under 40
Building Design + Construction
