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. This is where I translate that science into something anyone can use.
Can architecture impact our capacity for connection?
Many people feel loneliness is an inside job, but that is only partially true. So too do our environments create the conditions for social connection to flourish or fade.
Peavey’s TEDx shares her evidence-based design for social connection framework, PANACHe, and translates research into actionable design guidance for any space.
Architect · Researcher · Storyteller
Erin Peavey, AIA, WELL AP, is an award-winning architect, researcher, and storyteller focused on how built environments shape our social health, happiness, and well-being. She is a Principal and Senior Vice President at at the global design firm, HKS, and an Industry Scholar with Cornell University’s Institute for Healthy Futures. For nearly two decades Erin has been a translator between the science of human well-being and place design. Her work has been featured by Psychology Today, The New York Times, National Geographic, Fast Company, and other international outlets. Her book on how places can support human connection and social health is due out in late 2027 from Island Press, and imprint of Princeton University Press.
Design Quiz
How social-health friendly is your environment?
Need help designing for human connection? Take Erin's diagnostic quiz to score any space (e.g., a home, office, school, or public place) across the seven PANACHe dimensions of social health, and get a custom action-plan report.
PANACHe
THE FRAMEWORK BEHIND THE DESIGN QUIZ
PLACENESS
ACCESSIBILITY
NATURE
ACTIVATION
CHOICE
HUMAN SCALE
EVOLUTION
P
A
N
A
C
H
e
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 Heal Loneliness
Erin joins the BBC Radio 4 to discuss the role of the built environment in fostering social connection and healing loneliness.
Design for Community Connection
The built environment can be an antidote to loneliness and isolation, and uplift mental, physical, and social well-being.
STAY CONNECTED
Research, writing & insights on design for connection - in your inbox.
Join thousands of designers, researchers, and curious readers who want to understand how the places around them are shaping their social lives — and what science says they can do about it.
Latest research translated into plain language
New writing from Psychology Today & elsewhere
Shared Space podcast updates & episodes
First access to the forthcoming book
