How Our Built Environment can support Wellbeing

How our built environment can support wellbeing is probably something we all instinctively know, even if we haven’t actively thought about it. It’s that feel-good factor when we walk into a room that is visually appealing, or the feelings of awe and wonderment when we appreciate the architecture of a building that totally inspires.

Maybe you are sensitive to energy and can pick it up when you first walk into a space that either welcomes or sends you running for the hills.

However you perceive it, the building industry has now cottoned on to its importance and buildings are being designed with wellbeing in mind.

Wellbeing in The Home Environment

More people are working from home since Covid.

It has been reported that this has resulted in increased expenditure on home improvements. People have sought to invest in their home environment as they are spending more time in it.

But even before Covid, DIY projects occupied people’s leisure time. As many of us have experienced, the desire to improve our living space, and save money, drives us to have a go. We know at a primal level that our sense of wellbeing is improved if we are enjoying the space we are in.

Many of us love to watch home improvement programmes on the television. It gives us pleasure to witness the transformations and gather ideas that we might try in our own homes.

Wellbeing in The Office Environment

Incorporating wellness criteria into office building design is the latest trend.

The world of real estate is constantly evolving to reflect the concerns of our times and now its the turn of designing for wellness.

Previously, and still continuing, is the drive to make our buildings more energy efficient to meet global warming targets.

And now there is this extra consideration – how to create work spaces that support health and welfare. This is being implemented at source when new buildings are being conceived, but also in ways of retrofitting old ones.

Think Amazon and Google, who are pioneers with their new state-of-the-art buildings.

The IWBI (International Well Building Institute) 

The IWBI (International Well Building Institute) is the leading organisation promoting the inclusion of wellness criteria in workplace design.

They were founded in the US in 2013 and were influenced by one overriding principle – as most of us spend a significant amount of our time at work (or used to!), it makes sense to include wellness criteria into workplace design to help improve health.

As one architect put it, “WELL is really about the effect of the environment on the individual, both physiologically and psychologically. I think of it as human sustainability”.

Wellbeing in The Therapy Room

Before Covid, when I was still practicing from home, I can remember a client saying to me during one of our sessions, “I feel safe in here. I feel I can talk about anything”.

I was pleased to hear these words as I had gone to some effort when designing my home consulting room.

I had set out to create a space that would feel warm and inviting – a “safe space” where clients could feel soothed as they began to unburden.

And now, as some clients choose to work face-to-face again, they often comment as they walk into the room, how much they feel calmed by the energy of the space.

I strongly believe that the ambience of the therapy room has its part to play in creating a healing environment. This is now supported by the latest research detailing the different techniques we can employ to calm the nervous system.

IWBI Concepts at Home

So, what lessons can we learn from this “people first” approach to design? How can we take some of these ideas and make them work for ourselves in our own environments?

To give an example, in the IWBI Nourishment concept, providing fresh fruit is a precondition, whilst growing fresh produce on site would be considered an optimisation.

How many of us get pleasure from growing our own vegetables?

The demand for allotments is at an all time high.

In my family, we have a tomato growing Whats App group, which provides much amusement and healthy competition!

Even if it’s only growing a few herbs in a windowsill box, that connection to plants and our food has a healing effect.

Bringing Nature Inside

Bringing nature into our environment is another way to promote wellbeing.

Scientific research, particularly at NASA, has shown this to be true. It can be achieved with the inclusion of houseplants, water fountains or simply having a view out of a window onto a beautiful park or garden, thus bringing the outside in.

House plants are known to be efficient air filters, converting carbon monoxide to oxygen, thus oxygenating our living spaces. This helps to improve mood, and also puts moisture back into the atmosphere, especially beneficial against the drying out effect of central heating systems.

Plants need nurturing thus encouraging us to engage and look after them. They need light, like we need light.

In short. indoor plants are good for our health.

The Physiology of Wellbeing

The experience of wellbeing is one driven by physiological factors in the body, so our environment needs to trigger this physiological cascade so that wellbeing can be felt.

The four physical inputs contributing to the wellbeing feeling include the engagement of neurotransmitters, hormones, the immune system and the microbiome.

It is therefore important for our health to create living spaces that promote positive physiological responses.

That may be different from person to person. Different styles appeal to different people in different ways, so a degree of negotiation may be needed if you are living with someone whose style is different to yours!

If it isn’t Useful or Beautiful…..

There is no doubt that our built environment impacts our sense of well being, be it at home, in the workplace, or in the therapy room.

Inspiring architecture and interior design are powerful tools in uplifting our spirits. The reverse is also true.

It was William Morris, the Victorian designer, who said “Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful”.

In more recent times it is Marie Kondo, the Japanese Organising consultant, who has made famous the art of decluttering our homes to bring in joy and happiness.

If an item strikes joy in your heart, keep it! And if it doesn’t…………well, if it isn’t useful…………maybe it is time to let it go?

Getting Creative

Creating your environment for well-being can be fun. It can be as simple as getting rid of what no longer is useful or no longer brings you joy.

If you are looking for inspiration on how to go about it, the BBC are now screening the programme  Sort Your Life Out with Stacey Solomon. “With a life-changing declutter, they upcycle and recycle their way to a new home.”

Decluttering is free! You may even be able to make some money selling your unwanted items at a car boot sale or online.

There are many ways you can improve your space for wellbeing, triggering a positive physiological and psychological effect.

How can you incorporate some of them?