The places you move through every day are shaping your social life.
I'm an architect and researcher who has spent two decades studying why some places make connection feel easy and others make it feel impossible — and what the science says we can actually do about it.
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Author · Researcher
Podcast Host
I study what places do to people. Specifically: why some environments make connection feel natural — and others make it feel impossible.
Drawing on environmental psychology, public health, and neuroscience, I translate evidence into practical design insights that help people feel safer, more supported, and better able to engage with others in the places they inhabit.
My work is guided by a belief that environments shape social life not just by the choices they offer, but by the conditions they quietly repeat. The places we move through every day are accumulating an effect — and most of us don't know it's happening.
I serve as a Principal and Senior Vice President at HKS, write the column Designed for Happiness for Psychology Today, host the podcast Shared Space, and co-led the Foundation for Social Connection's 2024 report on the built environment and social health. My forthcoming book examines why so many modern environments ask too much of us — and what it looks like when design gets the conditions right.
Can architecture impact our capacity for connection?
The places of our lives shape how we connect one another. Everyday environments can make loneliness and isolation the default feel natural — or unnecessarily difficult —through the conditions they create.
Peavey’s TEDx Deep Ellum talk shows how design can support social connection. She provides an evidence-based framework for how to design for social health. Peavey’s report, How the Built Environment Can Foster Social Health, translates research into actionable design guidance for any space.
Sharing the message.
City Design for Social Health
Erin talks with National Geographic about how small changes in our neighborhoods can make a big difference in how connected we feel.
Places that Cultivate Connection
Erin joins the BBC Radio 4 to discuss the role of the built environment in fostering social connection and healing loneliness.
Environmental Design for Community Connection
The built environment can be an antidote to loneliness and isolation, and uplift mental, physical, and social well-being.
Forthcoming Book · Island Press
Why modern environments quietly ask too much of us
A new book examining how the everyday places we move through erode our capacity for connection — and what it looks like when design gets the conditions right.
