Implementing the WELL Building Standard in Design

By Cristina Kelly, Brand Strategist, Entro.

As we spend 90% of our time in buildings, it’s no surprise that a building standard has emerged focusing exclusively on human health and well-being. The WELL Standard is quickly gaining attention as a goalpost for our industry and a perfect complement to LEED. However, as this standard gains more traction, many questions are brought forth for the design industry, specifically related to more ambiguous features that are difficult to quantify.

We’ve identified a particular feature of the WELL Standard, ‘Beauty and Design,’ which is purposely flexible, but still remains too ambiguous for our industry to implement. We brought together experts in architecture, interior design, graphic design, public health, and WELL certification through workshops and interviews to remove some of this ambiguity.

Together we identified innovative techniques and strategies to meet and exceed the objectives of this feature such as representing the cultural atmosphere, optimizing our circadian rhythm, and creating deeper connections to place. Further to this, we also explored how to engage users in this human-centred design, and build thorough narratives for certification applications.

We will demystify the ‘Beauty and Design’ feature of the WELL Standard along with other relevant features such as ‘Biophilia’ and Adaptable Spaces’.