In all likelihood, the office space you occupy doesn’t quite measure up—in any way, shape, or form—to the Washington, DC, headquarters of the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID). After all, modern buildings routinely expose us to conditions that may compromise our well-being, sabotage our mood, squelch our creativity, and even keep our focus squarely on Friday at 5:00. By contrast, every high- and low-tech detail of ASID’s workplace has been reimagined and retrofitted to promote physical and/or mental health, the goal being to positively affect both the well-being and productivity of everyone working there. And the results of this nearly-three-year-old experiment, which may one day serve as a model for a vast assortment of cubicled wastelands, have been so striking that it’s not hard to imagine the staff of 30 collectively uttering the unthinkable: Thank goodness it’s Monday.
Among the many hallmarks of this 7,500-square-foot office is the attention paid to the quality of light. The space purposefully faces northwest, so it’s bathed in a soft ambient shimmer throughout the entire day. The interior lighting is synced to parallel the human body’s circadian rhythm, so the bright, white bulbs that supplement the morning sun gradually give way to warmer, yellow hues that help prepare for the brain’s nightly surge of melatonin, the hormone that aids in the control of daily sleep–wake cycles. Sensors affixed to window mullions calculate glare and, if necessary, automatically raise or lower the shades to regulate its intensity.
Equally notable is the attention to biophilia—the human affinity for the natural world, which creates a positive, healing atmosphere. For example, the office is filled with desktop terrariums, window-ledge greenery, and architectural patterns that mimic the natural world—everything from curved, cloudlike ceiling details to a conference room’s rich blue carpeting, fashioned from recycled fishing nets, whose randomized purplish swirls create the sensation of gazing across a not-quite-still pond. What’s more, a prominently displayed flat-panel monitor serves as a digital canary-in-the-coal-mine, offering a real-time snapshot of ozone, carbon dioxide, and other air-quality levels aggregated from sensors scattered about the office. When any of those readings exceed acceptable levels, the HVAC system flushes the space with fresh, filtered air.
Similar attention is paid to the social interaction and self-care the space fosters. There is no assigned seating, for instance, leaving the organization’s employees—including its CEO—to decide each day which workstation, office, or conference table best suits their individual whims or collaborative needs. Sit-stand desks are purposefully angled to provide those facing each other with visual privacy (as a bonus, those angles add another biophilic element). The customer-service area, where workers field some 4,000 monthly phone calls, are designed with thicker walls and acoustic dampening to mitigate the distracting din of the classic office. A consultant analyzed the organization’s demographics to calculate the optimal room temperature—a setting that corporate America has historically configured to accommodate men. A café stocked weekly with organic fruits and vegetables awaits those in need of a healthy snack, while a comfortable out-of-the-way break room is reserved for breastfeeding, meditation, or an afternoon snooze.
Just as significant, however, this “living laboratory” at ASID showcases the intersection of mindfulness and the modern building, which offers the promise of dramatically transforming the structures in which we live and play, study, heal, and even spend the waning days of our lives. It’s part of a growing global movement to create spaces that contribute to healthier minds and bodies—an effort spearheaded by the International WELL Building Institute (IWBI), a New York-based public-benefit corporation founded in 2013. By tapping an exhaustive body of evidence-based scientific and medical research, IWBI devised an elaborate template for measuring, certifying, and then monitoring a wide array of elements that may impact the physical and mental healthfulness of a building’s occupants.
The WELL Building Standard operates much like Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (known familiarly by its acronym LEED), the global green-building rating system that awards points for such practices as collecting recyclables and designating parking spaces for the use of electric and hybrid vehicles. Although LEED also rewards projects for addressing the health of a building’s occupants, WELL has made that its sole focus.
Those seeking the WELL stamp of approval are graded on their ability to comply with the requirements spelled out in dozens of features of health and comfort grouped in 10 broad categories, or “concepts.” Among those in the Nourishment concept, for instance, is the creation of spaces to encourage mindful eating; the features that comprise the Mind concept, including designating areas exclusively for meditation or contemplation, are intended to bolster cognitive and emotional health.
“A building can do more than ‘no harm,’ that it can actually enhance the way that we live.”
—Rachel Hodgdon, president and CEO of the International WELL Building Institute
ASID is the first organization anywhere to achieve the highest level (platinum) of both the LEED certification and the newer WELL certification, and a growing number of like-minded businesses and institutions are striving to follow suit. “Increasingly we have the understanding that we can do so much better—that a building can do more than ‘no harm,’ that it can actually enhance the way that we live,” says Rachel Hodgdon, president and CEO of the International WELL Building Institute. “And so this is, I think, the shift to more mindful spaces—being intentional about our design and asking ourselves, How can our buildings be caretakers of the people within?”
A Picture of Health and Happiness
Although we may be genetically predisposed to venture from our caves and connect with the natural world, the Environmental Protection Agency estimates that, on average, Americans spend about 90% of their time behind closed doors, whether in their homes, offices, and cars, or in theaters, restaurants, and malls.
Certification requires generous policies related to promoting healthy sleep, granting ample time away from the office
For many, that means being cooped up for half of their waking hours in a workplace whose computer screens may cause headaches and eyestrain. Whose cleaning products may give rise to nausea and dizziness. Whose mold-encrusted wall interiors may provoke sleep disorders or cognitive impairment. Whose drinking fountains may dispense water tinged with unhealthy levels of l