The Built Environment and Emotion By Sophia Schuff & Olivia Flynn The built environment shapes how we feel, yet we often overlook the emotional impact of our surroundings. Imagine if our cities went beyond meeting our basic needs. What if they made us feel supported, valued and cared for? How would our lives change if streets weren’t just for movement but for moments of spontaneous discovery? What if our city’s public spaces didn’t simply tolerate people using them but were designed to inspire, spark social connection, and strengthen bonds between neighbors? Cities are more than just buildings, roads, and infrastructure — they’re the backdrop to our lives. The way a neighborhood looks and feels can shape our emotions, influence our habits, and impact how connected we feel to others. At Gehl, we’re fascinated by how the built environment affects people’s everyday experiences, and our design approach reflects that. Gehl is an urban strategy and design studio where urbanists, social scientists, and data analysts come together to tackle some of the toughest challenges cities face today. Building on Jan Gehl’s legacy of human-centered design, we have continued to study how thoughtful urban projects can make cities more livable, vibrant, and support a higher quality of life for all. With shared interests in how communities can lead a great life, Gehl partnered with Gambrell to explore a critical but often overlooked question: How does the built environment foster awe, belonging, and positive emotions — especially for young people? Putting our attention on Charlotte Charlotte is a city on the move, growing quickly in both population and physical footprint. While the city is evolving, there are opportunities to create more inviting, accessible, and connected places that better serve the people who call Charlotte home. Dacher Keltner, an expert on the science of emotions, has conducted research that highlights the power of awe, those moments that shift our perspective, spark wonder and make us feel small in the best way. With support from the Gambrell Foundation in 2024, we set out to explore how the built environment shapes these kinds of emotional experiences in Charlotte. Our goal? To inspire new ways of designing cities that don’t just meet functional needs but also create spaces where people can truly thrive. Expanding the way we understand cities At Gehl, we’ve developed an approach to studying how people interact with urban spaces to inform urban planning and the design process. We ask detailed questions like, “How does the design of this plaza influence the activities people participate in when staying? What makes someone pause to chat with a neighbor on the way to work? Or where and when do people feel safe to walk at night?” Yet this project took us to new territory, encouraging our team to move beyond observing how people use the urban environment, to rather ask how an urban environment makes people feel. Are they anxious, do they feel welcomed or joyful? To get to the heart of the powerful connection between emotion, especially the feeling of awe, and our urban environments, we asked young people to document their urban experiences and tell us stories about how the places they visit make them feel. The research approach included analyzing high-level data trends, joining community-led walking tours in Charlotte, and engaging directly with 40 youth citizen scientists who documented their personal perceptions of Charlotte and contextualized their findings through storytelling workshops. What makes people feel cared for in Charlotte today, and what are their existing barriers to awe? As we walked through Charlotte’s streets, listened to local young people’s anecdotes, and analyzed thousands of images, we started to understand some of the conditions that either facilitate or complicate their emotions in the city and experiences of connection, belonging, and awe. 1. The quality of the built environment is directly related to people’s ability to feel safe and wander. Feeling safe enough to wander is foundational to exploring. Many design features, like a lack of nighttime lighting and narrow sidewalks on roads with fast traffic, lead young people to feel unsafe in public space, which hinders their abilities to spontaneously explore the city. These conditions have an inequitable impact on certain groups based on where they live or spend time, impacting how they experience awe. 2. Commercial hubs, the places where you must pay to stay, serve as town squares. The lack of free and accessible spaces to gather limits the public imagination of where people can go and spend time. As a result, commercial hubs, concentrated in a few areas, serve as the primary places for social connection. The design features common in these areas — like colorful furnishing, public art, and the presence of other people — positively influence young people to gravitate to commercial hubs. This further reinforces a sense of shared belonging and delight that is often difficult to find elsewhere. As a result, young people end up paying a high price to hang out and be close to the places in Charlotte they find beautiful, lively, and interesting. 3. Nature sets the stage for experiencing awe in Charlotte, but there is a desire for more immersive experiences to be a part of the everyday experience. Across all groups, we heard that being close to nature made people feel happy, calm, and welcome. Many of Charlotte’s residents feel inspired by the calming and pleasant aspects of nature, but it can feel separate from the everyday experience. People want more out of natural spaces, from recreation opportunities to easy access to nature in their communities. Charlotteans want to celebrate nature in the city and make it a core part of their everyday routines. 4. Cultural markers contribute to a sense of place and the feeling of being part of something bigger than oneself. Charlotte has signs of culture and history, but these signifiers are fading in pace with development. This is leading to a lack of collective identity necessary for feelings of belonging and awe. Signifiers like legacy restaurants, murals, or unique architecture that have been around for a long time play an important role in promoting feelings of civic pride. Experiencing these elements in one’s community helps people feel they are a part of a longer story of the city. Learning from people’s lived experiences and perceptions helps us understand what is working well, and what needs to change. This informs new conversations with local actors, future urban design decisions, and programming ideas. If we want to create a city that fosters connection, joy, and belonging, we need to address the challenges of our environments and intentionally plan for these experiences. Shaping a city that cares for you While there is no silver bullet for a caring city, from big moves to everyday actions, there is an ecosystem of opportunities to nurture a better quality of life for all. We also believe that this isn’t only about urban design. It’s about creating places that make people feel seen, valued, and connected. A caring city invites for joy and discovery, where people can stumble upon music in a plaza, linger in a well-loved park, or find inspiration from third spaces that showcase the community’s story. It’s a city that empowers young people as city-makers, giving them the tools to shape their surroundings and see themselves reflected in the spaces around them. It’s a place where institutions reach beyond their walls, bringing art, learning, and culture into the public realm to inspire and uplift. It’s a city that values everyday moments, ensuring that green spaces, historic landmarks, and neighborhood gathering spots are not just preserved but deeply loved and taken care of. It’s a city where people feel safe to wander and free to get lost, where walkable streets, vibrant transit, and connections to nature help people experience awe frequently. This project invites you to see Charlotte — and cities everywhere — as opportunities to nurture a range of emotions and ultimately a better quality of life for all. This is just the beginning of work and we are excited to introduce you to Charlotte. https://www.inaweofcharlotte.com/
