WELL Certified Design (Website)

WELL Certified Design

Designing a Healthier Life

Listen. Solve. Deliver.

Creating people-first places.

At TVS, we believe that prioritizing the health and well-being of the people we design for is crucial for a project's future success. By utilizing WELL certified design, we can take a holistic approach to health in the built environment by addressing behaviors, operations and design.

What if you could go home from work healthier than when you arrived?

Creating WELL certified designs requires looking for and creating opportunities to impact health through behavioral, operational and environmental elements. WELL is a roadmap for improving the quality of life by using a holistic approach to tackle many wellness issues. From water quality and acoustics to health literacy and equity, WELL certified design takes a wide range of issues into account. With inspired design decisions we can not only keep people connected, but facilitate a good night’s sleep, support mental health and help people do their best work every day. This holistic approach to design can lead to an increase in productivity, focus and job satisfaction while reducing stress, fatigue and sick time. Simply put, healthier people work better. WELL certified spaces convey the people-focused philosophy that they're designed on and this positively impacts recruitment as well as retention. By investing in your people, you communicate that your employees and visitors are a priority to your business's culture.

WELL is a performance-based system for measuring, certifying and monitoring features of buildings that impact human health and well-being. WELL looks at the connection between the buildings and the health and wellness impacts on occupants based on a body of medical research. There are 10 major categories to consider when pursuing WELL certified design:

What is WELL?

When we decided to relocate our Atlanta headquarters, we knew that we wanted to create a space that promotes wellness and fosters creativity. With that in mind, we began our journey of pursuing WELL certification. The path to WELL certification beyond the bronze level is highly customizable. Knowing this, we surveyed the office to listen to and understand everyone’s wants and needs for the new space. While we were in the process of gathering information, we got in touch with WELL and sustainability consultants to help us identify the right wellness goals for our project. Because WELL certification also requires ongoing testing, we knew that working with a team that has experience managing WELL testing and reporting would make the process smoother. WELL initiatives and planning appropriately means implementations at the design and construction point can be thoughtfully and economically considered, but consultants can also help with decisions on WELL features which involve company policies, signage, and operational standards and reporting. As we continue on the path to creating for ourselves an office space that promotes health and wellness, we’re committed to using a people-first, holistic approach to the design.

Our Process

Customizing Your Path

Because the path to WELL certification can be customizable, cost varies depending on which categories you focus on. Some categories, like Community and Mind, can be targeted through programs and policies that don’t break the bank. There are also many overlaps with other certifications such as LEED and JUST. This can make for great values and cost reductions when pursuing WELL certification. For example, many elements of LEED certification meet the built requirements for air, water and other WELL preconditions and optimizations. Identifying wellness goals that work for your project involves looking at both your budget and the needs of the end users, and customizing the process to your needs. At TVS, we listen to your needs closely, solve them creatively and deliver them reliably.

Designing people-first spaces is something we believe in so strongly, it’s in our company DNA. As we work towards our future office relocation, we have committed to pursuing WELL certified design for our new location.

Creating spaces that allow tenants to connect and recharge is critical to designing the perfect common areas. At TVS, we look at how people use and experience space to craft areas that elevate work performance and the social experience. We start by identifying different work modes such as recharge, collective, collision, social, shared and focus. We then design spaces that speak to these work modes to boost productivity and foster the social experiences that tenants seek.

Movement

Light

Nourishment

Water

Air

Community

Mind

Materials

Sound

Thermal Comfort

Air

Almost two-thirds of the human body is made up of water, and it’s how nutrients and waste are transported throughout the body. Medical professionals recommend adults drink at least two liters a day, and yet many people are inadequately hydrated. One reason for this is mistrust surrounding the quality of drinking water. While developed countries have reduced the risk of infectious diseases in drinking water, there has been an increasing risk of industrial, agricultural and pharmaceutical contamination. People-first design seeks to increase people’s hydration while lowering contamination.

Water

It’s no secret that nutrition and health are closely linked. Poor nutrition is one of the leading causes of noncommunicable diseases and a risk factor for many preventable chronic illnesses. Worldwide, diets are not meeting the healthy nutritional requirements as people increasingly reach from highly refined and packaged foods, high in sodium, sugar and refined fats. Dietary patterns are influenced by a combination of personal, cultural and environmental factors. To improve the nutritional quality for the food people eat, there needs to be access to healthy food, policies to support healthy eating and eating spaces that promote social and mindful eating.

Nourishment

Humans are diurnal, which means that they naturally want to be awake during the day and asleep at night. The circadian rhythm is a 24-hour cycle that is synchronized with the day-night cycle and takes its main cue from light. All light can contribute to a disruption in circadian rhythm. This means that insufficient or improper lighting design can lead to health issues such as metabolic and sleep disorders. Also, studies show a direct link between light and mood. Exposure to better views and brighter light create better work performance in employees and reduce recovery time for patients suffering from depression. By creating intentional lighting design, we can reduce circadian phase disruption, improve sleep quality and positively impact mood and productivity.

Light

Type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, depression, stroke, dementia and some forms of cancer are all linked to physical inactivity. In developed countries, it’s estimated that approximately 29% of the population is inactive. This inactivity can be detrimental to a person’s health, with 6-8 hours of sitting per day linked to increased risk for mortality from cardiovascular disease. Sedentary lifestyles are currently being promoted by building design that demands less movement. When planning a space, it’s critical to create designs that promote movement and foster physical activity.

Movement

Throughout the day, the human body works to balance heat gains and losses to maintain the body’s core temperature within its optimal range. The indoor thermal environment of a building impacts around half of a building’s energy consumption and is also ranked as one of the highest contributing factors that influences overall user satisfaction in buildings. Thermal comfort is an important issue for people, but it’s also subjective. Effective methods of addressing thermal comfort give control to the users, with some building control apps allowing people to “vote” on a zone’s temperature. Health, well-being and productivity can all increase by giving people influence over their environment's temperature.

Thermal Comfort

In recent years it’s been determined that exposure to exterior noise from transportation or industrial sources have been linked to sleep disturbance, hypertension and the reduction of mental capacities. Studies have also found that internal noise such as HVAC equipment, appliances and other occupants have been proven to hinder productivity, focus, memory retention and mental arithmetic. To address the concerns of acoustical comfort, we must take a holistic approach through research-based design.

Sound

Materials entails all physical products used in the built environment from the insulation to the cleaning supplies. Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) make up a large fraction of chemicals found in indoor environments. VOCs are found in insulation, paints, coatings, adhesives, furniture, composite wood products and flooring materials. They have a wide range of health effects ranging from respiratory irritation to cancer. Monitoring building materials, cleaning products, waste, and outdoor spaces is crucial when trying to mitigate environmental contamination and protect the health and wellness of occupants.

Materials

Mental health is defined as a mental state where people have the capacity to live life to their fullest potential, cope with the regular stresses of life, work productively and contribute meaningfully to their community. Poor mental health issues are a growing concern, with depression and anxiety disorders among the leading causes of the global burden of disease. It’s estimated that depression and anxiety alone cost the global economy $1 trillion USD each year due to lost productivity. Design strategies can be a powerful tool for combating this growing issue. By increasing overall wellness, designing positive work environments and implementing access to nature and wellness spaces, the way we build a space can have a profound impact on people’s mental wellness.

Mind

Communities are a crucial element of wellness and health, as people are influenced and supported by social ties and organizational structures. Implementing policies like adequate paid parental leave and programs like immunization initiatives can be an easy way to promote wellness within a community. From a design perspective, creating spaces that are inclusive, accessible and safe help to foster a healthy community. Accessible environments use universal design principles to consider differing ability and mobility. When creating a space, the social components that drive and shape health should form the foundation of the design.

Community

Let's talk about your next project.

Victoria Rice

Senior Associate Designer

vrice@tvsdesign.com

WELL AP

At TVS, we believe that people are the world’s most valuable asset.

Regardless of the level of certification you pursue, your journey towards WELL is an investment in your most valuable assets: your employees and the people who use your space.