12 Ways to Design Your Home for Health + Wellness

If you're unfamiliar, wellness architecture and design is a growing trend that incorporates healthy living into new and existing homes. Paul Scialla established the International WELL Building Institute in order to set wellness design standards, and defines it as such: "All the elements that surround us indoors — air quality, water quality, lighting, thermal, acoustics, biophilic elements... [have] a direct impact on our respiratory, cardiovascular, immune, cognitive, digestive, and sleep health outcomes."

This holistic approach is what differentiates this area from green building, which mainly focuses on using environmentally responsible materials.

Thanks to the pandemic, concern over air quality has seen the biggest uptick in 2020. According to Paul, "A year ago, if you asked 100 people, probably one out of 100 would have had a thought, concern, opinion, care or even awareness of indoor air quality. That number one year later is 99 out of 100," he says. One of the main ways Paul addresses wellness design is by using a state-of-the-art technology system called Darwin, which works to monitor and filter air and water pollution and control circadian lighting.

Paul says that his company sells air filter systems that can remove particles as small as .007 microns. The EPA found that air cleaners must be able to remove particles in the 0.1 range in order for them to effective against viruses, but that these units must be used along with other measures to protect against COVID.

For a more accessible alternative to installing expensive air systems, consider an air purifier. "There are stand-alone air cleaners that have technology such as air quality sensors built in to the units to help to know when the air quality is bad, and then increase their operating speed to help remove pathogens and particulate matter in the air that are bad for your health," says Jan Vitrofsky, who founded building technology company HEDsouth in 1984. His company also offers DARWIN technology to help with home automation.

Veronica Schreibeis Smith, CEO and founding principal of Vera Iconica Architecture, another pioneer in the wellness architecture movement, says just adding plants can make a difference in your home's air quality. Biophilic elements — essentially incorporating nature and natural elements into your home — are considered an integral part of wellness design.