Wellness Design

The field of architecture is beginning to recognize that successful design must satisfy three interrelated domains: environmental sustainability, organizational effectiveness, and human well-being. These three principles are related to Brundtland's definition of sustainability and although there have been a lot of efforts in green and economic design, the last piece of the puzzle of addressing the well-being of people is more elusive.^[1]

Wellness, in general, can be defined as a state of being healthy in body and mind, especially as the result of deliberate effort. In interior design, wellness design is an intentional design approach to enhance the health, happiness, performance, and personal and professional growth of building occupants. Individual spaces designed for wellness are ones that have positive impacts on work performance, psychosocial well-being, and health.^[2]

The best distinction between current and proposed practices can be made through an analogy using biological concepts of survival needs and well-being needs.^[2] Survival needs deal with aspects of the environment that directly affect human health, such as clean air and water, lack of pathogens or toxins, and opportunity for rest and sleep. These are the concepts that are being addressed currently through sustainability design that mitigate Sick Building Syndrome (SBS). Well-being needs, on the other hand, are more indirect and affect overall health through their relationship to fulfillment, quality of life, and psychological health.

Boyden (1971) presented well-being needs that have relevance to interior design: (1) places for spontaneous social encounters, (2) ability to move between multiple social phases, (3) controlled noise levels not much above or below that found in nature, (4) meaningful stimulation of one's senses, and (5) an interesting visual environment.