The Key to Happiness in Cities: Social Connections and Sustainable Urban Design
In today's world, more than 50% of the population lives in cities, as stated by Costa and Oliveira in “Human, Smart Cities.” This cumulation of population in smaller areas may cause some dissatisfaction among a critical portion of its dwellers. As factors may differ, so do the solutions. The path to satisfaction in city populations might be coming from addressing the causes first. In the writing “Happiness Is Not for Sale: Public Spaces in Urban Places,” it is stated that modern cities fail to address many of people’s basic psychological needs, such as watching and interacting with others in order to be a part of a community and to obtain human connections. This point of view has an objective aspect, which connects to a research by Easton in 2006. This means that social connectedness is a significant factor to happiness and satisfaction in cities. Social connectedness is a need that is a result of humans being inherently social animals, which are unable to thrive without human inte...