Shared Loneliness

The magazine Ciudad Sostenible features the opinion by SPREAD members on the phenomenon of loneliness in the urban scope

Ciudad Sostenible (Sustainable City) has published its 40th issue, including the article titled ‘Las soledades urbanas que rasgan el alma de la ciudad’ (Urban lonelinesses tearing the city’s soul) by the journalist Marta Montojo, where Postdoctoral Research Fellow Rosana Rubio and Associate Professor Fernando Nieto give their impressions on the role of architecture on the alleviation of loneliness as a non-desired human condition.

From the article’s standfirst: “Urban loneliness is expressed and made visible in the city’s public spaces not intended for encounters, but it is born in private environments, or rather, in the insurmountable barrier between the private (the traditional house) and the public; between that ‘which is of one’s own’ and what we need to share so as to not leave anyone behind. The problem is such that urban planners, sociologists, architects and professionals from many other disciplines merging in the urban realm are trying to find solutions so that our cities are not dead places that serve only to confine lonely souls.”

Ciudad Sostenible is a professional magazine published both online and in printed format in Spain, with a focus on urban sustainability, efficiency in resource use and global change, offering reflections and practical information on ideas and projects for the sustainability of our cities.

The full article can be read (in Spanish) in the Ciudad Sostenible’s printed issue and in pdf at the magazine’s website.