Design for Wellness
January 21, 2026
Health and well-being are rooted in place. And because Americans spend over 90% of our days indoors, according to the U.S. E.P.A., the quality of our homes and workplaces has great potential to impact our health. As architects, where do we turn to understand the environmental factors that affect health and how to apply them?
The WELL Building Standard provides a framework for us to assess design options and provide our clients with healthier spaces. WELL “applies the science of physical and social environments” to support health, well-being and performance. We are excited that Liz Nguyen, AIA is the first Placework team member to become a WELL Accredited Professional.
Architecture is often approached through the lens of function or visual appeal, how a building works, how it looks from the outside. While these are essential aspects, they don’t capture the full depth of what the experience of architecture offers. At its heart, architecture is a form of art — an expression of human creativity and imagination that surrounds us, grounds us, and subtly shapes how we experience the world.
The WELL ethos resonates with Placework’s mission to inspire people to take care of each other and the planet.
The WELL Building Standard encourages building and business owners to adopt evidence-based solutions to common health issues that arise within our interdependent built environments and workplace cultures. It can also be applied to multifamily residential buildings and their ongoing maintenance.
Originally launched in 2013 by Delos, a research and development company with a mission to “enhance health and well-being in the spaces where we live, work, learn and play,” the WELL standard expanded globally through a transformative partnership with the Australian development firm Lendlease. Administered by the International Well Building Institute since 2014, the WELL certification was the first building certification to focus solely on occupant health and well-being.
The strategies promoted within the WELL rating system span from healthy building materials and systems to educational programs, employee benefits, and ergonomics. IWBI verifies that each WELL certified building meets testing and documentation requirements for its level of certification, in a points-based system organized into 10 concepts:
Ten Concepts in Well Standard v2
We believe the architect’s core professional responsibility to protect public health, safety, and welfare extends into all of these areas. A WELL certified building not only supports occupant health but promotes a deeper sense of people and place. That ethos resonates with Placework’s mission to inspire people to take care of each other and the planet. While not all of our projects will pursue WELL certification, principles of healthy and people-centric design underlie the work we do. Having a WELL AP on our team enhances our ability to support healthy outcomes using evidence-based metrics. We look forward to incorporating this learning into our process.