Almost one in three Australians experience loneliness, and growing evidence suggests chronic loneliness can have significant impacts on health, wellbeing and community resilience.

While loneliness is often viewed as a personal issue, many of the factors that influence connection and belonging are shaped by the places we create. The design of our neighbourhoods, public spaces, housing, transport networks and community infrastructure all influence how people interact and whether they feel connected to those around them.

Recognising this challenge, PATHMAKER is bringing the Loneliness Lab to Australia, adapting an innovative model first developed in the United Kingdom to help communities, governments and industry work together to design for connection and belonging.

To explore the initiative, Heath Gledhill, Partner at Gledhill Shield, spoke with PATHMAKER Co-Founder Vanessa Pilla about why the Lab matters and what it could mean for Australia’s built environment sector.

Heath Gledhill:

For readers who haven’t come across it before, what is the Loneliness Lab?

Vanessa Pilla:

I established the Loneliness Lab in 2018 while working at Lendlease Europe. At the time, London was being described as one of the world’s loneliest cities, but addressing loneliness wasn’t clearly any one sector’s responsibility.

The idea behind the Lab was simple. Challenges like loneliness are complex and interconnected, so they need different perspectives working together. We created a framework that brings together communities, government, researchers, designers and developers to explore solutions, test ideas and learn what works.

We often see innovation sprints used in the technology sector before major investment decisions are made. We asked why we couldn’t apply the same approach to social challenges.

The Loneliness Lab became an incubator for collective action, helping organisations experiment, learn and build evidence before committing significant resources.

Heath:

Many of the outcomes we care about in cities, health, resilience, wellbeing and social cohesion, are shaped long before people move into a place. Why does now feel like the right time to bring the Lab to Australia?

Vanessa:

The conversation has shifted significantly over the last couple of years.

The New South Wales Parliamentary Inquiry into Loneliness recognised loneliness as a public health issue and acknowledged that planning, design and place management all influence people’s experience of connection and belonging.

Importantly, it also recognised that this isn’t a challenge government can solve alone.

That felt like an important moment. We’ve seen the impact of this work in the UK, and now is the right time to explore what an Australian model might look like. We’re currently working with partners to test that proposition and understand how the Lab can best respond to local conditions.

Heath:

One of the lessons from major city-shaping projects is that outcomes rarely emerge from design alone. They emerge from the interaction between governance, operations, community and place. How does the Lab help people work across those boundaries?

(urban design, programs and activities and policies are all critical in promoting social connectedness. Image: AI generated via magnific)

Vanessa:

That’s exactly the challenge we’re trying to address.

Cross-sector collaboration happens regularly, but collaboration without structure rarely delivers lasting change.

PATHMAKER is acting as the convenor and steward of the Australian Loneliness Lab. Our role is to bring together the different people, organisations and capabilities needed to address the challenge.

We need organisations willing to lead early. We need project sites where ideas can be tested. We need community organisations, researchers, designers, facilitators, storytellers and policy champions.

The Lab creates a framework that helps those groups work together around a shared challenge and generate practical outcomes.

Heath:

We often talk about loneliness as a social issue, but there are growing discussions about its economic impacts as well. Why should business leaders, developers and city-makers view this as a strategic issue?

Vanessa:

Because loneliness affects much more than individual wellbeing.

The impacts flow through health systems, workplaces, communities and local economies. It can influence physical and mental health, workforce participation, community resilience and people’s sense of belonging.

For organisations, that can mean reduced productivity, higher absenteeism and weaker workplace connections. For governments, it can increase pressure on health and social services. For communities, it can weaken the networks of trust and support that help people navigate change and uncertainty.

What’s important is recognising that loneliness isn’t simply a personal experience. It is also shaped by the systems and environments around us.

When we think about loneliness through that lens, it becomes not only a social issue but a city-shaping challenge.

Heath:

So what actually happens in a Loneliness Lab project?

Vanessa:

The starting point is always a real place.

Loneliness is a wicked problem. It looks different in every community, so we begin by understanding local conditions and listening to the people who experience them.

We then bring together stakeholders through a series of facilitated design sprints. Those conversations generate insights and identify opportunities that can be tested through small-scale experiments.

The aim is to learn quickly and build evidence before significant investment decisions are made.

Rather than assuming we already know the answer, the Lab helps us discover what works in a particular place and what lessons might be transferable elsewhere.

Heath:

Let’s stay on language for a moment because people often use “loneliness” and “social isolation” interchangeably. Does the distinction matter?

Vanessa:

It matters a great deal.

Social isolation is objective. It’s about how much social contact someone has.

Loneliness is subjective. It is a feeling – the gap between the connections a person has and the connections they want.

Someone can be socially isolated and perfectly content. Equally, someone can be surrounded by people and still experience profound loneliness.

This distinction matters because much of the built environment sector has traditionally focused on reducing isolation by creating opportunities for contact.

But proximity isn’t connection.

Creating opportunities for people to be together is important, but what ultimately matters is whether people feel welcome, valued and that they belong.

That’s the challenge the Lab is interested in exploring.

(A Sunday morning exercise class in Sydney. Image via freepix)

Heath:

If proximity isn’t connection, what are the practical levers available to people shaping buildings, precincts and communities?

Vanessa:

We often describe the built environment as operating across three layers.

The first is hardware: the physical environment, including buildings, streets, parks and public spaces.

The second is software: the programs, activities and services that activate those places.

The third is codes: the policies, standards and planning frameworks that influence how places are designed and managed.

One of the industry’s common mistakes is focusing primarily on the hardware. We build a great public space and assume connection will follow.

But a beautiful plaza without activity, stewardship or supportive policy rarely achieves its full potential.

The strongest outcomes occur when all three elements work together.

Heath:

That sounds like a fundamentally collaborative challenge.

Vanessa:

It is.

No single organisation, discipline or profession has all the answers.

The Loneliness Lab is ultimately an experiment in structured collaboration. It recognises that creating belonging requires different forms of expertise and creates a practical framework for bringing those perspectives together.

If we’re serious about designing places that support connection, we need to become more comfortable working across traditional boundaries.

That’s where innovation happens.

Authors

Heath Gledhill is Partner and Co-Founder of Gledhill Shield, a built-world strategy consultancy helping organisations make better decisions about cities, place and infrastructure. He works with clients across complex urban, transport, precinct and infrastructure environments, bringing strategic clarity to high-consequence decisions, stakeholder alignment and governance.

Vanessa Pilla is Co-Founder of PATHMAKER, a values-driven social enterprise delivering strategic advisory for meaningful change. She partners with organisations, governments and communities to create social value through engagement and place-based impact. Vanessa leads the Loneliness Lab, bringing cross-sector partners together to design loneliness out of our cities.

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