Invited discussant comments during the UCL–Penn Global COVID Study webinar ‘How Do We Trust (Again): Paranoia and Mental Health’: part 2 of 2

Loneliness has been reported by the UCL–Penn Global COVID Study participants throughout the pandemic year, not surprisingly, although this has been an issue that has been manifesting itself even before the pandemic. In identifying loneliness in communities, the built environment industry and professionals have been looking at how good and targeted design in the public realm and master planning can help to firstly design interventions and secondly orchestrate or manage these spaces in a way that helps create opportunities to address loneliness. Furthermore, how these spaces create opportunities for people to both interact with each other but also interact with the space can help connect people together and with nature/biodiversity. In doing so this also helps to create better health outcomes for mental health and wellbeing, as well as physical health and wellbeing. Coronavirus (Covid-19) and the associated lockdown periods have caused people to reconnect with local green spaces and has focused the attention to what these spaces provide in terms of opportunities and benefits for people. As a result, the value placed on these and the expectation of how they will provide value to communities is increasing and will continue to increase in the post-Covid-19 world. Better connected, activated and well-structured public realm and green spaces will be central to the development of projects and schemes for housing, and mixed used schemes in the forthcoming years.