Why Wellness Matters in the Built Environment

Wellness isn’t just about individual behavior. Our environments play a large role in supporting our health.

Many conversations about health and wellness tend to focus on individual behavior, such as exercising more, eating nutritious foods, managing stress, and making better choices overall. Often overlooked is the fact that our choices are actually strongly influenced by the spaces and environments we find ourselves in on a regular basis.

People, especially those that work in office settings, spend the majority of their time indoors. Conditions such as lighting, acoustics, air quality, physical layout, access to movement, and opportunities for connection all play a part in how they feel and function throughout the day. These effects accumulate over time, either positively or negatively. When wellness is properly considered, it can make choosing healthier behaviors much easier.

Consideration in the built environment is about recognizing that wellness is happening in buildings and influencing health outcomes, whether it has been intentionally designed to do so or not. Ignoring wellness doesn’t remove this impact; it simply leaves it unmanaged. 

How are your regular environments removing barriers to make it easier to be healthy?