Sensing the city: Experiences of loneliness among students in Amsterdam

There is ample evidence that loneliness is shaped by the environments in which people live, work and spend their leisure time. While quantitative studies have demonstrated links between characteristics of the built environment and loneliness, emerging qualitative research highlights how this relationship is mediated through embodied experiences.

This article advances this line of research by focusing on how the affective and multi-sensory qualities of urban environments – such as sound, light, smell and atmospheres – influence individuals' feelings of loneliness in their daily lives. Using a photo-elicitation method, 35 undergraduate students (aged 19–25) reflected on places in and around the city of Amsterdam (the Netherlands) that positively or negatively affect their experiences of loneliness.

The thematic analysis of the reflections identifies four binary place dimensions that shape loneliness in diverse ways:
1) places for lingering versus movement,
2) calm versus stimulating settings,
3) sheltered versus exposed spaces,
and 4) personalised versus anonymous places.

In view of this complex place-loneliness dialectic, this study concludes that policy and planning approaches should move beyond a singular focus on place interventions that stimulate social interaction. Instead, it should prioritise equitable access to a diverse spatial spectrum that acknowledges the varied ways individuals engage with places when feeling lonely. This range includes both communal, sensory-stimulating places that allow for distraction, and sheltered, calm settings that afford solitude and self-reflection.