Building Spaces for Well Being

Once a month, our team gathers for what we call Inspiration Meetings. Topics vary from trends, products and video to architectural and design industry news to recent team member travels and photos. Anything and everything that might inspire our work.

Building Spaces for Well Being

In our latest Inspiration Meeting, we talked about WELL Building Standards. It’s becoming important to how architecture and design move to the next level of personalization. We’ve figured out how to make buildings better for the planet with LEED certifications and the next natural step is to make buildings better for our health and wellness. R+B embraces these standards and concepts in our work. We thought we’d share some information to inspire you as well.

What is a WELL Building and what are the standards?

A WELL building is designed, constructed and maintained to improve the health, happiness, wellness and productivity of its users – from entire communities to brand new restaurants to office building renovations.

The WELL Building Standard is “the world’s first architectural benchmark focused exclusively on human health and wellness to improve sustainability.” It’s a performance-based system for measuring, certifying and monitoring features of the built environment that impact human health and wellbeing through seven factors including:

All seven factors are optimized based on over 100 WELL requirements. The Certification is awarded at one of three levels: Silver, Gold and Platinum.

Why was this standard created?

We spend more than 90 percent of our time indoors in our built environment which can have a huge impact on our health, happiness, overall wellness and productivity. This human-centered design approach was created to improve and enhance health and quality of life for those interacting with a space.

Workplace Standards

When a company can compete and show a commitment to their employees’ wellness, that can help attract, retain, and satisfy high-quality employees – especially when it comes to a workspace. Beyond attracting talented workers, studies have shown that healthy workers perform better and are more productive in a building designed for wellness. Purposeful staircase placement, reclaimed wood walls, enhanced filtration of air and natural light are just a few elements to improve the quality of a space.

Hospitality Standards

Marriott has adopted Delos developed Stay Well rooms based on the belief that as we travel, we deserve a positively impacting environment to maximize the experience and minimize the impact that travel has on our body.

The holistic approach provides technology and features that will help us feel refreshed, adjusted, nourished, activated, rested and sustained. Find a Stay Well room for your next business or personal travel, and rest easy.

To learn more about creating positive spaces using the WELL Building Standard, take a look at this guide.­