Community By Design Season 2, Episode 1: Social Infrastructure and Places
Community By Design is a podcast series that takes a deeper look at how social infrastructure, our shared spaces, services, and community connections, shape daily life across our region. Listen more at https://communitybydesign.transistor.fm
Waterloo Region Community Foundation (WRCF), partnered with Midtown Radio to develop a podcast series that carries forward the region-wide conversations sparked by the 2025 Vital Signs® Report. This series, called Community By Design: Exploring Social Infrastructure in Waterloo Region, takes the ideas raised from the report and explores them more deeply.
As WRCF shared the report and episodes across the community, many people asked for a deeper look at specific themes and what they might mean for the region's shared future. Vital Ideas® responds to that call. WRCF is publishing a series of Vital Ideas® Reports to focus on selected topics raised by Vital Signs® and examines them through new lenses, voices, and perspectives.
In June 2026, WRCF worked alongside Dr. Troy Glover, Professor at the University of Waterloo and Director of the Healthy Communities Research Network, to create the first Vital Ideas® Report focused on Social Infrastructure and Places. As our region grows and evolves, places matter because they shape how people encounter one another, build relationships, and develop a sense of belonging.
To broaden the conversation even further, WRCF again partnered with Midtown Radio to produce a second season of the podcast – focused on sharing insights from the Vital Ideas® Reports.
In the first episode of season 2, host Shannon Knelsen brings together Dr. Troy Glover and Mouna Andraos, co-founder of Montreal art and design studio Daily tous les jours, to share their perspectives on how everyday spaces, repeated encounters, and shared experiences help create community connection.
What turns a space into a place? And how can strangers build community together?
"Space really is an objective set of coordinates. It's there. It doesn't really have any meaning… when a space becomes a place, it's because we've interacted with it, with people within it, and through those interactions, it becomes meaningful." -- Dr. Troy Glover
Mouna shows what those ideas can look like when they are brought to life. Through interactive public installations, including the Singing Swings, which have appeared here in Waterloo Region, her work creates opportunities for strangers to connect. She and her co-founder describe this idea with a phrase that also became the title of their book: Strangers Need Strange Moments Together.
"It's a bit of a provocation. It's an invitation to try to rethink how we interact with each other, and really start designing and imagining our places so that we stop being so scared about people that we don't know, about people that maybe don't think like us, are not similar to us, and we start reaching out again, reconnect with our neighbours, reconnect with people who we cross paths with every day, and start restitching the fabric, the social fabric of our lives, so that ultimately we can continue building more resilient communities." -- Mouna Andraos, co-founder, Daily tous les jours
Connection rarely happens on the first encounter. It builds each time people come back. Troy's research shows why that matters. Belonging grows through the people we see again and again.
"Repetition is crucial to connection. I may meet somebody somewhere, and we may hit it off. If I never see them again, that fleeting engagement doesn't result in a meaningful connection. When we recognize that, that means that repetition is actually really important to fostering meaningful connection in our lives. If we don't encounter people and re-encounter them, then we don't have the opportunity to develop that relationship." -- Dr. Troy Glover
As Waterloo Region continues to grow, creating places where people can return, linger, and be recognized may be one of the most meaningful ways to turn strangers into neighbours.
In 2026 and 2027, WRCF will be releasing a series of Vital Ideas® reports, each taking one idea raised by Vital Signs® and examining it in greater depth – through new lenses, voices and perspectives. For more information, visit wrcf.ca/vital-signs.
CREDITS
Shannon Knelsen, Host / Producer / Editor
Shrijith Ramaswami, Post-production Editor
Deren Atkins, Distribution Manager
David Harmes, Executive Producer / Audio Engineer
EPISODE 1 GUESTS
Dr. Troy Glover, professor at the University of Waterloo and director of the Healthy Communities Research Network
Mouna Andraos, co-founder of Montreal art and design studio Daily tous les jours
