Why This Book Matters
In a world of growing disconnection, what makes us feel like we truly belong?
From the bustling cities of Amsterdam and London to the quiet strength of communities in Nepal and Iceland, The Belonging Effect: The Spaces We Seek is a global journey into the heart of human connection. Part travelogue, part field guide, and part invitation, this bookazine explores 14 essential “Spaces We Seek” where people find meaning, comfort, and kinship.
Blending storytelling, social innovation, and community psychology, this beautifully illustrated edition offers real-world examples, practical tools, and thought-provoking insights for building more connected, compassionate neighbourhoods.
Whether you’re a changemaker, city planner, or curious soul, The Belonging Effect will inspire you to rethink the spaces around you and the ones within.
"Because belonging doesn’t just happen. It’s something we build together".
What You Will Learn:
This isn’t just a book—it’s a call to reshape the way we design our neighbourhoods.
Through powerful global stories and the development of the SEEK Framework you’ll explore:
- How to design spaces that invite connection: Learn how architecture, layout, and intentional design can turn everyday places: parks, cafes, laneways, lobbies into powerful social anchors. Discover simple shifts you can make in your neighbourhood or organisation to help people feel safe, seen, and welcome.
- How to spark belonging in your street, school, workplace, or city: Discover practical, real-life initiatives to create a culture of inclusion wherever you are. Whether you're starting a local meet-up, designing a co-working hub, or revamping a youth centre, you'll find actionable ideas to make belonging tangible and lasting.
- Delve into the essential types of spaces people search for: From sacred spaces and nature spaces to digital, economic, and emotional support spaces. This framework provides a new lens to audit your town, organisation, or project for connection potential.
- Each chapter includes engaging prompts and community activities designed to turn ideas into action, helping you foster connection where it’s needed most. It includes articles on 'The Pursuit of Belonging', 'Why Neighbourhoods Matter', 'The Future of Neighbourhoods' and 'Designing for Belonging'.
Take A Sneak Peek...
The 14 ‘Spaces We Seek’
The Belonging Effect is the story of my journey around the world to discover both the visible and invisible threads that support people to not just live somewhere, but to truly belong. Belonging, I’ve discovered, is not just about finding your spaces in the world, it’s about having the opportunity to choose your spaces in the world. The spaces we seek are not static, they ebb and flow with the rhythms of our lives. The SEEK Framework: Spaces for Engagement, Expression, and Kinship is a human-centered model that identifies fourteen (14) essential spaces where people find connection, creativity, and community. It explores how engagement (through participation), expression (through identity and voice), and kinship (through relationships) are nurtured through the thoughtful design and activation of space. SEEK serves as a guide for creating environments where everyone can experience a sense of belonging. Importantly, these spaces are flexible. They can be entered alone or with others, offering both solitude and social connection, depending on what the moment calls for.
Spaces that hold us and heal us.
Sacred Spaces
History & Future Thinking Spaces
Sacred Spaces
Places for spiritual reflection, ritual, and cultural meaning from temples to quiet corners for personal contemplation.
Nature Spaces
History & Future Thinking Spaces
Sacred Spaces
Green areas that connect us to the earth and ourselves like parks, gardens, forests, beaches.
History & Future Thinking Spaces
History & Future Thinking Spaces
History & Future Thinking Spaces
Spaces that honour our past while inviting bold ideas for what's next like museums, innovation hubs, libraries.
Food Spaces
Exchange Spaces
History & Future Thinking Spaces
Where meals become moments of connection like community kitchens, cafes, markets, shared tables.
Exchange Spaces
Exchange Spaces
Exchange Spaces
Zones for sharing goods, time, and skills like tool libraries, swap markets, repair cafes, op shops.
Housing Spaces
Exchange Spaces
Exchange Spaces
Inclusive, stable places to live like co-housing, transitional accommodation, tiny homes, student housing.
Emotional Support Spaces
Emotional Support Spaces
Emotional Support Spaces
Safe environments to be heard, held, and healed like mental health hubs, community drop-ins and safe spaces for care.
Physical Support Spaces
Emotional Support Spaces
Emotional Support Spaces
Accessible spaces that look after our health like hospitals, clinics, wellness hubs, gyms, sports tracks and stadiums.
Economic Spaces
Emotional Support Spaces
Education Spaces
Opportunities for dignity through work and enterprise like coworking centres, job clubs, social enterprises.
Education Spaces
Education Spaces
Education Spaces
Lifelong learning environments like schools, language classes, libraries, maker spaces.
Tourism Spaces
Education Spaces
Tourism Spaces
Places to wander, wonder, and connect like local attractions, cultural trails and homegrown stories.
Digital Spaces
Education Spaces
Tourism Spaces
Online platforms for connection and inclusion like virtual communities, help forums, and gaming.
Art Spaces
Mobility Spaces
Mobility Spaces
Where identity and creativity flourish like street murals, studios, open mic nights, galleries.
Mobility Spaces
Mobility Spaces
Mobility Spaces
How we move safely and freely like walkable paths, bike lanes, public transit that connects rather than divides.
Frequently Asked Questions
It’s a global journey and practical guide to creating neighbourhoods that foster deep human connection and community.
Both! It weaves storytelling and research with hands-on tools and real-world applications you can try immediately.
Anyone who wants to foster more connection in the world educators, urban designers, community leaders, social workers, students, and heart-led individuals.
The SEEK Framework: Spaces for Engagement, Expression and Kinship. These spaces together create a holistic map of belonging showing us that it’s not just people, but place that helps us feel connected, seen, and supported.
Not at all. The Belonging Effect is accessible, visual, and written for everyone from passionate beginners to experienced changemakers. It includes QR codes to the projects for you to access easily.
All three. It’s beautifully illustrated like a bookazine, thought-provoking like a memoir, and practical like a field guide.
Absolutely. It includes discussion prompts and activities ideal for facilitators, coaches, or team leaders.
Yes! You’ll gain access to Atlas Awaits YouTube channel to view more inspiring social innovations.
Join the Belonging Movement
Ready to redesign your life and the lives of those around you
with more connection, compassion, and purpose?
Don’t miss your chance to experience The Belonging Effect. This beautifully crafted bookazine is now available on Amazon. It’s more than a book it’s your invitation to build a better world.
I pledge to create spaces of kindness, inclusion, and connection. I will listen, welcome, and support others so everyone feels seen, heard, and valued. Belonging begins with me.
Belonging Movement Pledge
Contact Us
The Belonging Movement Starts Now!
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