Megan Oliver
I am an urbanist and a happiness enthusiast. I pair scientific findings with community insights to create happier spaces and places. I'm typically barefoot at work and I spend most of my spare time obsessing over which vegan restaurant I’m going to visit next.
Megan is an urban designer and planner and an independent researcher exploring the deep emotional impacts of place. Megan is tuned in to the influence that environments have in driving choices, behaviors, and feelings. Believing in the power of our surroundings to profoundly influence our mood and behavior, she is driven to design and shape spaces that foster healing and joy. She is a frequent speaker at the American Planning Association’s national planning conferences and was the 2023 Keynote Speaker for the American Planning Association Washington state chapter conference where she presented "Neurourbanism: How an understanding of our brains can help us design happier cities."
Through her research-informed design practice, Megan connects the science of human experience and perception to urban design and planning strategies. Much of her work is focused on social infrastructure and design interventions in the public space, a realm in which she sees incredible opportunities for impacting happiness and wellbeing through intimate, everyday experiences. As an urban designer and planner, Megan tailors strategies to be particularly relevant in our present-day, ever-evolving global circumstances. She is a passionate advocate for under-represented voices. Megan employs humanistic design, storytelling, public art, placekeeping, livability planning, and responsive spatial design interventions to foster strong communities and cultivate happier, restorative, and more inclusive places.
She's interested in work that brings her into closer alignment with her mission: shaping spaces that foster joy and healing through a research-informed design practice.
And she shares her work on her website, hellohappy.design
