Alone Together: How to Design for Connection in Today’s Solitary Times - 1.0 PDH (LA CES/HSW)
Includes a Live Web Event on 05/19/2026 at 2:00 PM (EDT)
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Loneliness is now a public health crisis, one that the built environment helped create. And yet, loneliness remains largely ignored in how we explore, design, and evaluate urban public space. As single-person households multiply and technology erodes organic moments of connection to one another, designers can no longer treat sociability as a byproduct of good placemaking. This session introduces a research-grounded framework to understand the incongruences between people and place that lead to loneliness. It will explore how understanding personal and place-based differences can support or hinder design for connection with one another and our environment. This session will charge landscape architects to think about designing with human loneliness in mind to foster more positive health and social outcomes.
Learning objectives:
- Identify cultural and technological trends that shape today’s lifestyles and how these shifts relate to changing demands on shared spaces, differentiating between “solitude,” “isolation,” and “loneliness.”
- Understand the social impacts and health outcomes of an increasingly alone lifestyle.
- Examine approaches to designing spaces for connection using exploratory demographic lenses.
- Learn strategies for connection from real community engagement, planning, and built projects.
Image: Unity Park, Greenville, South Carolina / John Fowler
Gaelle Gourmelon, ASLA
Associate
MKSK
With a background in public health and biology, Gaelle approaches landscapes as a set of living and social systems. She believes that wonder and play are central to designing active, social, and healthy places that inspire stewardship. Gaelle embraces wide ranging landscape influences to create spaces, finding inspiration from her childhood in Mexico, France and Alabama. Gaelle has both managed and designed projects ranging from single family residential to schools and mixed-use trails.
Sarah Lilly, AICP
Senior Associate
MKSK
Sarah is a planner who focuses on creating meaningful planning processes and public engagement that result in effective plans that will be used for years to come. She is passionate about fostering vibrant, strong communities through creative, engaged, and meaningful planning. Through each project she uncovers and celebrates the unique assets of communities, crafting tailored policy and project recommendations that build on their authentic identity.
Kelsey Zlevor
Senior Planner
Epstein
Kelsey Zlevor is a spatial strategist, design researcher, and founder of Mental Landscapes, an emotion-meets-design lab committed to creating and reimagining spaces that comfort, support, and accompany people through mental health experiences over the course of their lives. Kelsey partners with community workers, outdoor space stewards, and cultural institutions to center depression as a design lens to foster well-being in public spaces. Her culture-shifting work weaves an understanding of depression with a recognition of the oppressive forces that exacerbate its symptoms. Kelsey was named the Fall 2023 Artist-In-Residence at Allerton Park and Retreat Center, and a SXSW 2024 speaker.
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