INTERIOR DESIGN FOR WELLBEING         -      SIMPLE. BEAUTIFUL. SUSTAINABLE

What is Design for Wellbeing?

Design for Wellbeing is more than just sustainability and energy efficiency in design. It puts people at the core of all design decisions to improve their health, productivity and overall mental state. In a nutshell? Designing to make you happy, healthy and (as a clever by-product) sustainable.

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Wellbeing design has become a big trend lately which has seen the argument for ‘green building’ shift its focus from saving energy and water to human focused outcomes. This means that building owners and tenants are making design decisions that directly influence people’s health and wellness.

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Why should we Design for Wellbeing?

• People spend approximately 90% of their time indoors which means their indoor environments are crucial to their health, wellbeing and general happiness.

•  The two biggest expenditures for any organisation are places and people, with people accounting for 90% of the lifetime costs of a building occupation. 

 

As Elizabeth Burton (professor of sustainable building design and wellbeing at the University of Warwick) said, ‘perhaps the key challenge of the 21st century is to improve our wellbeing – to ensure we are happy as well as healthy. After all, what is the point of living a long life if we do not enjoy it?'

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Positive impacts of wellbeing design in offices and homes:

• Higher productivity and efficiency

• improved creativity,

• Improved cognitive function

• Stress reduction

• Better overall health - Improved support for the immune system

• Staff attraction

• Staff retention/higher job satisfaction

• Improved sleep patterns

 

Do we have to?

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No, but these are the Negative impacts of poorly designed workplaces and homes:

• higher incidence of absenteeism due to colds and flu,

• headaches

• short-term physical irritation

• loss of concentration

• reduced cognitive ability.

 

How do we design for Wellbeing?

We look at the following 5 Key issues for wellbeing:

1.    Indoor Air Quality – this includes CO2, VOCs, air particulates and ventilation levels.

2.    Acoustics – ways in which sound impacts occupants within and through spaces.

3.    Design Character – the harmony of colours, shapes, textures and combinations between these.

4.    Physical Arrangement & Furniture – this includes environmental psychology issues, layouts and relationships of spaces and functions.

5.    Light – quality and source of light, natural and artificial, controllability and glare control.

 

By improving these components, people will often see gains in their productivity, mental state and general health. As an added incentive, this often equates to a win:win:win outcome for the environment, the occupant and the bottom line.

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As a starting point, occupant health and comfort can be enhanced by improving the indoor air quality (IAQ) and increasing natural light, ventilation and views. Once implemented, these and other sustainability measures can generate increased savings and productivity, which is a bonus for homeowners, tenants and building owners.  

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How does this translate into design decisions?

(In brief)

• Maximising natural daylight and views to the outdoors

• increasing natural ventilation levels to flush out toxins and improve cognitive function

• consider Biophillia - an innate and genetically determined affinity of human beings with the natural world (according to a theory of the biologist E. O. Wilson) – by introducing plants indoors or views to greenery as a start

• careful material choice to reduce exposure to toxins and chemicals such as VOCs

• clever spatial design to enhance occupant comfort, usability and experience of space

  

Why use us?

For Offices:

 

• We have a fundamental understanding of start-up businesses and the importance of maximising every dollar spent.

• Affordable – low overheads as we work remotely and from shared office spaces. We also know how to stretch a dollar.

• We’re able to translate the big picture research to the small scale fitouts. Our understanding of green building and wellbeing design allows these principles to be creatively applied to small business – getting the rewards without the expenditure.

• Branding experts – We use the fitout as a visual representation of the brand itself. This helps reinforce key brand concepts to all involved (staff and client attraction/retention).

 

For homes:

• We don't believe you should just accept the status-quo when it comes to your homes. I.e. ‘it is what it is until we move somewhere bigger, better, brighter, lighter’. Clever planning, better storage and a little injection of mindfulness goes a long way to improving the feel of a home.

• After the birth of her daughter, Jaimie (founder) became even more aware of the importance of a well designed home. ‘When you spend more hours at home you see the benefits of more light, fresh air and adequate storage ten fold.’ More importantly, better access to light and fresh air can help set people’s circadian rhythm so they sleep better at night and function better during the day – if that isn’t important for new parents and babies, I don’t know what is!

• As specialists in small spaces, we can even help with the rabbit warren houses or helping to fit in a home office into the living room or a full wardrobe into a tiny bedroom. Just takes a bit of magic!

 

Where can we see Design for Wellbeing being implemented?

Mainly in the big end of town i.e. large scale corporate office fitouts and retail developments. The benefits however, are justified to all levels of development, especially boutique office spaces, individual retail spaces and importantly personal housing. Why is it only being done by the commercial giants? For a start, most of these programs are expensive and somewhat time consuming in terms of the ‘paperwork’ component. That said, I’m a firm believer that they get good results from this as it holds people and organisations to account and encourages them to actually achieve what they set out to. When it comes to small scale business and residential projects though, well, we don’t all have that time and financial luxury. In my opinion, you can still apply the principles of wellbeing design and sustainability without the official certification – but you have to stay true to the initial desires for green building and eco-design.

 

This is where a Wellbeing Design Consultant can help!

 

Who is involved in Design for Wellbeing?

This movement has been championed by the World Green Building Council and has been pulled into the spotlight by their work done through the Better Buildings for People movement (http://betterplacesforpeople.org/). The findings in their reports (Health, Wellbeing and Productivity in Offices, Retail and soon to be released, Health, Wellbeing and Productivity in Homes) have clearly demonstrated the business case for the Return on Investment of green building by focusing on the human benefits.

(http://betterplacesforpeople.org/index.php/reports-and-publications/).

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It is also being driven by the International Well Building Institute in the USA who have developed the Well Building Standard. 

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Some helpful resources:

http://betterplacesforpeople.org/

http://betterplacesforpeople.org/index.php/reports-and-publications/

http://www.interiorarchitects.com/blog/design-in-2015-the-workplace-must-support-wellness/

https://www.wbdg.org/design/promote_health.php

https://www.wellcertified.com/

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