Active Travel in Healthy Buildings

An interview with James Nash, founder of Active Travel Score

https://activetravelscore.com/

What is active travel?

Active travel is any traditional or any non-motorized transport that isn’t cars, trains, public transport, or buses, for example, so any small, lightweight, possibly motorized way of getting around like an E-scooter, but also running, walking, or cycling to / from a building.

The journey started for me around about 15-16 years ago. When I was at university, I did a business management degree. And going into my final year, when I was into it, I went to Vienna of all places, and I was just struck by how popular cycling was there. And obviously, everyone thinks of Holland being bike friendly. But I was surprised. And it's the first time I'd seen a bicycle rental system on the street. So I just thought “bikes”, yeah, this is going to come to the UK at some point. And it just stuck in my mind.

Then as part of a final year project, I had to come up with a business idea. So myself and six others in our group, if you like at university, and our final year, had to do quite a business idea, and ours was coming up with a bicycle parking product, which we designed. The two of us left university and we decided to set up a business selling bicycle parking products. And we did that for the best part of 10 years. And that grew.

Most obviously, the kind of uptick we saw in cycling across the UK over the past. Sort of, we've seen it for about 15 years now. But then it got to the point about four or five years ago when we saw the opportunity for a certification within active travel. So we launched what was cycling school and is now active school.

My other business is Bike Dock Solutions as a product seller of bike racks and bicycle parking products. And we notice that day in day out, we were giving advice to architects on how to best layout cycle facilities are active travel facilities within commercial and residential buildings, off the large scale, sort of the skyscrapers you see all around London or any other major cities.

So we realized there was an opportunity and and a lack of knowledge of how to do this. So that was really the I suppose the brainwave or the lightbulb moment that there really needs to be an educational tool for the market, the real estate market, and so he started cycling school.

Designing active travel into a building

I think the government planning authorities have really got to grips with this over the past 15 years, in terms of putting the infrastructure into buildings. So storage for bikes, for example, or soon to be storage for E scooters. They genuinely have really started to be demanding for bike racks for new builds. And I'll say that really made developers get their head around it.

Over the past 10 years, planners have been asking for it and developers have been putting it in. There's now a real business case for putting in good active travel facilities in buildings - landlords see that they drive up rents and longer leases for their tenants or their residents. It's simply what people want from a building now.

City planning and active travel

So if it's a residential development, it varies up and down in the UK, and it varies across the world as it should do because cycling. And active travel cultures are different city to city, country to country. So it's important that there are different standards out there, because you don't want to be over subscribing, the number of bike parking spaces within a building, or under subscribing.

So it may be two, it needs to be out of a block of, say, 1000 apartments that get built. And the planning authority will say we will only grant you planning permission if you provide to bike parking spaces per apartment. And it isn't this thing, these aren't kind of like, oh, we'd like you to do this. But we'll give you planning anyway. You have to do it now.

So for example, 22 Bishopsgate, which is a commercial development in London, and it's the largest office building in Europe. It's actually got 1700 bike parking spaces within it. And that is because they had to do it for planning. Hmm. At the moment, are there too many spaces in there for the occupancy levels? There probably is, however, in five years time, or 10 years time, will there be, you know, under-utilization? Absolutely, based on the way active travel is go in, those spaces will get filled. So there needs to be an element of future-proofing to these new developments that are coming along.

Green building standards and active travel

Out of the two is it developers who listen more to green building standards or city planner? I'd say it's the planners. So the idea is have the full control because at the end of the day, if you don't meet their planning commands, requirements, right, that you build your building.

And so they're the most important than site and the fact that particularly in say London, they their demands are very LV demanding. And we are a lot of our clients often will get us involved because they want to send check some of the numbers because they put in an application for planning and then realize how many bike racks I have to provide.

And I think will easy is actually feasible. And so often we'll work with them to get their heads around it. And to explain that yeah, these are you can't think about these V spaces for now, you've got to think of the next 10 years. And then when they realize actually the long term value for putting in these spaces now. And they're a lot more comfortable with Yeah, going into it and stop stopping argument with the local authority or often the planners who asked him for these to go in now.

Healthy building standards

However, I'd say secondary to that. I suppose yourself, you know, how popular now these green certifications are and the health and wellbeing ones like well, lead Breann they're slowly but surely put in more importance on active travel. So they're really beginning to understand its importance in improving buildings overall, whether it's for the standard sustainability side of things or the health and wellbeing side of things.

Active travel facility design

It is important to bear in mind that what makes an active travel facility isn't just the infrastructure. So when I say infrastructure, I mean, the tangible things you can see, and you can touch. So they are extremely important. And so for our certification, they're worth 70%, of what we score. However, on top of that, and I'll go into more detail about what makes good infrastructure in a minute. But on top of that, what is very important is services.

So it's the softer measures within a building. So 20% of what we score, for example, is the active travel services. So is there a bicycle maintenance mechanic that can come to, to the to the building, once every quarter, or once every six months? Is there a laundry service provided for the tenants within a building or residence. So it's the softer measures as well. So that's something else we really want to say.

And the final 10% is future proofing. So what we want to see is that there's a plan in place that the building has to cope with the increase in active travel that we're going to see going forward is so important, especially now, with the post pandemic era where active travel has seen a real big uptick, it's probably sped things up by at least probably five years in a lot of areas, I'd say, in terms of the popularity. So it's not just infrastructure, it's the overall picture of the softer measures as well.

But in terms of blank canvas, infrastructure wise, that's what everyone thinks of when they want to see in is good access. So ideally, we don't want to be having people who are going by active travel, crossing with motor vehicles, we want to have it set completely separated, so their own insurance, so there's no risk of being hit by car, for example. We want security to be good.

So at least two layers of security because, unfortunately, a lot of the methods of active travel such as cycling or a scootering. They obviously bikes and scooters do get stolen very often. So security is extremely important. We like to see two layers of security. So it's a lot harder for someone just to get in, take a bike on a scooter and get out. Once you're inside the facility.

Designing active travel facilities

What we would love to see is a mixture of racking systems. So we'd like to see low level racking systems for and what this enables is for people who may not be able to lift the bike, or maybe have three wheeled bike two tracks, for example, to be able to park their bikes securely. And we like to see a scooter of X starting to appear. Especially as although there are illegal emojis now, building managers need to start thinking about them, because within the next year is pretty much guaranteed that personal e scooters are going to be legalized in the UK.

Active commuters

We also like to see if it's commercial office space, we want to see good high quality showers as well. And that's important so that people will encourage the cycle there's no barrier there to think I'm not going to ride my bike this morning. Because I can't shower when I get to work. We want to see good, good good shower facilities. Lockers are very important because lockers for that so that people can store their items or clothing.

So for example, some people may choose to run into work and then have a shower. So what you want we want to see is enough lockers so that cyclists who want to put their helmets and their bike lights or whatever it might be in a locker, obviously do have a locker but then we need an over provision so that foreigners can actually use have a locker as well.

We'd like to have a really nice look and feel where possible. So by this we want to see the spaces to be not just whitewash blank walls that traditionally is what you get, and are pretty uninspiring we want them to look more like front of house. So if you went into an apartment block or you went into a reception of a commercial building, we'd like to see the active travel spaces, looking more like that soak some color and make them inviting and some of our clients have even chosen to have music playing in their active travel facilities now, so it really is like Front of House As we think it should be. So in terms of infrastructure, that is what we'd like to say.

Active travel and active design

In years gone by it made sense to have spent all this money on reception areas and have all these amazing artworks and think God isn't this great.But then for years, people you could have the other it could be MD of Deutsche Bank who's in your building will actually cycle to work. And they're literally parking their bike in the bins near the bin storage under the under the building. And it doesn't really make any sense. Because if you're a landlord of that building, you want to keep them that bank they're in and you see you need your whole building to be a nice experience. However, there's I can guarantee 90% of buildings in London, probably very much still like that, it despite how much it's been made, and how things are changing. And so it's the whole whole, the whole building needs to be a good experience. And if there is, is less likely tenants or residents are going to leave, and you might be able to charge them more.

Healthy real estate and active travel

And so what's amazing is that a lot of that kind of traditional thinking is, well, an old building, there's not really any point making any effort it because, you know, all these new builds can come along and just put bite racking in and make them look great. But in reality, that's not the case, it's the investment really isn't anywhere near as much as what I think a lot of developers or a lot of existing landlords are building think is, especially when you consider the benefit of it in terms of long term to business case, in terms of how to keeping people tenants happy or attracting tenants because you know, there's there's, there's there's a lot of movement, as always, in real estate are people coming and going. And so it helps to kind of give yourself a bit very best chance if a building or company taking space knows their employees are going to have a great experience when they get into work, parking their bike, having a shower, going for one at lunchtime, whatever it may be.

the future of active travel facilities

If we went up to the pandemic and what I've seen in terms of the increase in active travel in the 12 or so years up until that point, and I'd say Most commercial buildings, certainly, and residential because of what was happening with planning anyway, would look completely different than the the facilities would be so much better. Just because of the way culture and people were naturally shifting across to active channel.

As I said, I think that pandemics may be going to actually take somewhere along this line, as five years out of that, in terms, it's going to make it happen so much quicker, because we're seeing now the the levels of people going into work by bike, even though people just started going back into London, for example, at Bristol, Manchester, and clients are getting inundated with cyclists in particular, people wanting to use the activetrail facilities.

So crystal ball wise, I'd say it's going to be completely different quantity wise how I don't know. But I wouldn't go far to say you've got a building like 22, Bishopsgate, being built in central London, and they're having to put 1700 spaces in their square footage is around about 1.3 million. I believe I might be wrong on that. But it's not far off. I would say that in five years time that there'll be asking for at least two and a half 1000 bike racks. I can't see how they won't be possibly 3000. So it kind of shows where we're going to go. Overall.

Well healthy building standard and active travel

With WELL, it's more of a focus on the cycling side of things, because that's what they tend to look at, at the moment, mainly at. And so I'm an advisor to them on the movement side of the certification. And so they're they certainly over the past five years, taken more, obviously, more than interested interest is the wrong word. But they realize it's more important than it was before. So that that's why they're there.

They're great in that they always any subjects, they've got so many advisors, and they always try and cherry pick people who are seen as an expert in an area and to work with them to help them develop their standard out. So that's what I've done over the past few years. But they're a really good example of a certification and they're all doing the same. Please be doing the same Breann or doing the same lead, which is obviously more popular in the states are doing exactly the same as well.

Active travel experts

Architects are extremely good at what they do. But there's no way they can have the knowledge that say we do an active child facilities because we spend day in day out doing it. So they just know why they can have the same knowledge. So what what kind of worked really well for us is ultimately we, when we started the certification, we realize that the certification was really going to work well because it enabled buildings to get educated guess and work out how good their facilities are, and now allows buildings to who've got good facilities to have a seal of approval and use it as a marketing tool.

But also the certification allows buildings that maybe aren't so good at the moment and aren't scoring particularly well to go on a journey with us over a period of however many years to overtime, improve their facilities and subsequently improve their score. However, we also realize that yes, there is a slight knowledge gap in terms of designing actual facilities.

So that's why we wanted to have a design service alongside that. So if we have a client that's working on a new development, or they want to undertake a refurbishment project, potentially for an existing building, we can work with them to help them and their design team to, to produce the very best facility possible with the space they have, the budget they have, etc, etc, and then certify afterwards as well.

So it's working extremely well. And I'd say, we tend to work most of our clients on the design side, we're working with clients, architects, rather than us doing the job of the architect, which yes, we can do. And we did do that for that building in Bristol. But most of the time, we work alongside a client's existing architect to ensure the very best outcome for the active travel facility.

Active Travel Score Certification fees

Yes, so the certification, we think it's pretty good value. I mean, we see a yearly fee of 1195 pounds for the certification, and we have a two year license period. So a client would have to sign up for a minimum of two years, so works out to be Yeah, just under two and a half 1000 pounds in total, as a commitment. And over that period, we'll work with them to try and improve their facility.

And after the two years, if they wish to renew it, and then that's what will happen, and hopefully, they'll score even better next time around. And it's, the idea is, it's almost like an insurance policy, I guess, for the client. So that while active travel is obviously taking off more so and increasing year on year, they don't get left behind.

So that's the certification. And in terms of the design advice, where we work with architect, we charge 3000 pounds, and that includes the design advice workshops with their architect, and a two year certification period as well.

Active Travel Accredited Professionals

We've literally launched our Accredited Professionals program in the past month, we'll call it a little bit of a soft launch. So far. Because we it's no isn't finished, we're actually not charging for it. Because we want to just make sure the offering is as good as it can be. And ultimately, we do see it being obviously useful for us in terms of being able to scale active score, internationally. But also, we think it will be an extremely useful tool for people who want to get more educated on the subject.

So architects who are going to be working on active trial facilities, project to project for example, I think this would be really, really useful for because we'll take them through the over you know, what makes a good facility and be able to keep them up to date with trends.

So for example, a bike rack a bike charging racks are coming in a scooter charging Max are coming in. They're just two new things that architects currently will know very little about, or where to get them for, so we can help them with that. So yeah, the AP program we do think although it's new, we do expect it to be very good for us.

https://activetravelscore.com/

future of Workplace wellbeing interview with matt morley

We recently participated in a webinar on the future of workplace wellbeing alongside The Yoga Agency and Yinshi Meditation as well as the Founder of Planet Organic / Beluga Bean, Renee Elliott.

Here is an extract from that webinar with Matt’s thoughts on workplace wellness, biophilic design and active design in healthy buildings.

For those of us working in the wellbeing space we have seen that Covid-19 has bought wellbeing into the spotlight for many businesses. Why do you think this is?

MM: From my perspective at least, COVID has merely accelerated a process that was already underway, in what was admittedly a rather patchy, yet undeniable ‘quiet revolution’ towards healthier, greener workplaces that respect the Triple Bottom Line of people, planet & profit. 

In the broadest of terms, the US, Australia, Canada, Singapore and to some extent the UK were seen as world leaders in this. Like I say, these things start as a niche and slowly become more mainstream, we just leapt forward by several years basically.

Indoor Environmental Quality - or IEQ - is a fundamental part of the healthy workplace concept, those of us engaged in this field have all studied it in-depth and more importantly implemented strategies to create, maintain and monitor purified, high quality indoor air with adequate ventilation rates long before the world switched on to the risks of getting it wrong, airborne virus transmission is one example but high levels of CO2, particulate matter or Volatile Organic Compounds all have their own detrimental impact on our health. 

Essentially then, at least in terms of creating a baseline for IEQ, it’s about three fundamentals: 

• the mechanical system or HVAC

• the building and fit-out materials present in a space that can off-gas harmful chemicals that reduce IEQ

• a facilities management policy around enhanced, eco-friendly cleaning schedules

Have you noticed any trends in terms of what different industries are doing to prepare the workspace for peoples return 

MM: Innovative tech companies were already way out in front on this as they are often cash-rich and place such priority on their knowledge workers no matter where they are in the world  - an example would be the green, leafy and cutting edge Amazon offices all over the world 

Where they led, others followed, so more generally now a lot of small-medium size start-ups looking to attract and retain top talent into their workforce in a highly competitive job market recognize that having an uplifting, positive space can make a real difference.

Then we have companies with an inherent connection to nature, perhaps via their mission statement or product line, an example there would be HERO organic foods in Switzerland for example, basically the natural version of Danone, they are now doing biophilic nature-inspired offices that reflect their company values on one level but also are designed to help raise productivity, concentration and happiness levels amongst their staff, whilst keeping them safe.

The current phase that I’m seeing is akin to a trickle-down effect that has been 10 Xd by COVID to a far wider spectrum of companies who now see an urgent need to upgrade their offices in light of recent events.

What do you think are some of the longer lasting impacts of covid 19 in terms of the way we work?

For those businesses looking for a standardized process backed by scientific rigor , there are a number of well regarded certification programs out there now, from Virus Response, to Air Quality specific, to those such as the WELL Certification that cover not just a workplace’s Air quality but also its Water, Nourishment and nutrition, the quality of Light within the offices, Fitness and movement, thermal and physical Comfort, as well as Mental Wellbeing

So just as sustainable building certifications tell us when a building has eco-friendly credentials, increasingly the leading workplaces are talking about their wellbeing standards as well.

Before it was a nice to have but Covid changed that.

What can businesses do to improve their physical environment/office space and why is it important.

First and foremost, again, it has to be indoor air quality, please please please let’s get that right! You may need some outside help to implement a solid plan in larger organizations but your staff will thank you for it and now is the time! 

Additionally, I’ve been talking about biophilia and biophilic design for 5-6 years now but it feels like this concept is finally ‘having a moment’ as more and more workplaces are catching on post-pandemic.

Essentially it’s about bringing the outside world into our built environment to harness nature’s mental and physical health benefits, for example a plant wall can do amazing things in terms of air purification. 

No matter how modest a space, a nature themed recharge room for having a quiet moment alone, doing some deep thinking, or a little light stretching can make the world of difference to the workday, especially in offices with limited natural light and no outdoor green spaces nearby.

For me, biophilic design combines elements of sustainability and wellbeing via its nature-first approach to materials, colours, sounds, textures and even scent. 

It’s not just putting plants on desks, the deeper you go into the principles behind this idea the more it gives back and the greater the impact can be on that Triple Bottom Line I mentioned earlier. 

In the end, we’re looking to boost productivity and concentration while reducing anxiety and stress amongst employees and, just as importantly, respecting the environment in the process. It’s a win-win.

What advice do you have for those in the audience in HR of Office management roles who have the responsibility of caring for other peoples health and wellbeing ?

I’ve touched on Indoor Environmental Quality, specifically the importance of establishing high quality indoor air and then monitoring it on an ongoing basis - data is key otherwise you’re operating blind! 

We then have the wonders of biophilic design, whether on a small or large sale, whether promoting access to nearby nature via walking meetings outdoors, or by bringing more nature indoors, it’s all good.

I’d add to that a real focus on physical and mental activity opportunities facilitated by the organization, even if only a discount or voucher system for nearby fitness studios or meditation centres if there Isn’t space or budget to host something in-house every week.

It’s the thought that counts and ultimately, if budget allows, having it there under-utilized (“my employer cares”) is still better than not having it at all (“my employer doesn’t care”).

Also, consider boosting your community-oriented CSR practices that help staff and the organization itself give back - they have been shown to foster immense feelings of purpose and satisfaction in the giver, not just the receiver. 

Additionally, consider the lighting in an office, uplighters / standing lamps and desk lamps with warmer, amber hues can be especially helpful in the darker winter months as an alternative to those harsh overhead blue-white lights that are detrimental to sleep quality, which in turn impacts worker performance the next day.

What can employees/individuals do to stay healthy during this transition back to normal?

In terms of personal agency, taking matters into your own hands rather than relying on organizational level change, it would have to be Active Design also known as ‘incidental movement’ during the day - it’s about being active at work, which is different to working out at work!

• So mindfully choosing the stairs not the lift

• Perhaps using a standing desk rather than a chair for at least part of the day

• moving between deep work spaces and more collaborative zones in the office, or going to a colleague to chat instead of sending an email 

• using a bike to get to and from the office

• consciously making yourself walk outside at lunchtime for a bite to eat

• proposing a walking meeting with another colleague instead of opting to sit together in a small enclosed office, and so on….

Contact us here to discuss your workplace wellness project

well building movement V02 ergonomic workstation design

a consultant’s insight into ergonomic workstation design for the WELL building certification Movement V02

What is the WELL Building Standard?

The WELL Certification process for WELL V2 is now widely established as the leading healthy building and wellness real estate standard in the world today. It is essentially a series of guidelines backed by rigorous scientific research, that when taken together, will guide a real estate project, whether new build construction or refurbishment and fit-out, towards a final product that is aligned with human health and wellness.

Sections of the V2 standard are dedicated to Air, Water, Nourishment, Light, Movement, Thermal Comfort, Sound, Materials, Mind, Community & Innovation.

What is WELL consulting?

A WELL AP or WELL consultant is there to assist a project team through the certification process, ensuring maximum points are scored along the way by offering expert advice not just on how to lock-in points but also the principles that lie behind them. As a result, the project has every chance of becoming a model of health and wellness in the built environment.

Additionally, a WELL consultant’s skill set might include wellness interior design, biophilic design, knowledge in healthy buildings and consideration for sustainability / green buildings, a WELL building’s close cousin, as well as expertise in health and fitness, or as WELL like to call it ‘Physical Activity’, ‘Movement’ and ‘Nourishment’.

What feature of a healthy building does Precondition V02 focus on?

Projects here need to show that they have provided ergonomic workstation furniture to all users of the building as well as practical guidance to ensure the furniture is used to maximum effect. Why does this matter? Get this one wrong and a workplace will likely suffer increases in absenteeism and a reduction in worker productivity.

In blue collar jobs especially there are physical risks at play whenever there is a manual component, such as lifting or loading whilst in white collar workplaces extended periods spent hunched over a screen and a keyboard can, if not positioned correctly, equally lead to pain and injury.

There is no one size fits all response to this but in general ergonomics in the workplace are designed to encourage movement during the day while avoiding awkward, uncomfortable positions. Adjustable furniture plays a large part in resolving the issue but education and knowledge sharing has also been deemed crucial by the WELL Certification.

For details on ROI to show to the ever vigilant company CFO, see here.

For a separate article we have written about ergonomic furniture in workplaces designed for worker wellbeing see here.

part 1: Visual ergonomics in WELL standard V02

WELL are looking for adjustable desktop monitors that avoid neck pain, you’ll need monitors arms or specific adjustable stands for this one. Laptops should also have an external keyboard and mouse to allow for more of an upright stance, additionally a stand for the laptop will prevent the head tilting down at an awkward angle and shoulders hunching forward. We want office workers to sit straight and or stand tall whenever possible to save their backs!

part 2: height adjustable work surfaces in well standard V02

A quarter of all workstations need to be height adjustable so that workers can sit or stand at will, whether it be manual or electric adjustment. Additionally, desk extensions can be included if a dedicated sit-stand desk is not an option, for example due to budget restrictions. We have written in more detail about this subject here in relation to WELL feature V07 Active Furnishings. For example, the photo above shows the standing desk set-up in Casa Biofilico, using a standard home office desk with an adjustable extension placed on top of it.

part 3: adjustable office chairs for WELL standard V02

Most new office chairs will come equipped with some form of adjustment options, in our experience providing office furniture for a luxury coworking office interiors project, spending a little extra brings additional ergonomic benefits from a workplace wellness perspective, and the office workers in question will thank you for it eventually!

WELL have some specific criteria here that your WELL Consultant would need to check with the office furniture supplier prior to making an order. If you are looking for options, we recommend ACTIU, a Spanish brand that specialises in workplace wellness furniture solutions.

part 4: provide support at standing stations for well standard v02

For anyone who is a regular user of a standing desk, it soon becomes clear that some additional support is needed to make this a comfortable experience after the first hour or two standing. WELL specify anti-fatigue mats, recessed toe space, a footrest and or a leaning chair. Only once you have spent a day working like this will you truly understand how important these small details are to the whole active furnishings debate! We usually work with a brand like FULLY for these smaller details.

part 5: provide workspace orientation for well standard v02

This one is an easy win, simply ask your WELL consultant or HR department to arrange in-person training or a video education session on the importance of ergonomics, demonstrating how to get the best out of the chosen office furniture and other resources for further reading on the subject.

To discuss how we can help you create a healthy workplace or healthy building project with WELL certification, contact us here.

well building standard movement V01 active buildings & communities

a consultants response to the well building standard’s movement V01 Active buildings & communities

What is the WELL Building Standard?

The WELL Certification process for WELL V2 is now widely established as the leading healthy building and wellness real estate standard in the world today. It is essentially a series of guidelines backed by rigorous scientific research, that when taken together, will guide a real estate project, whether new build construction or refurbishment and fit-out, towards a final product that is aligned with human health and wellness.

Sections of the V2 standard are dedicated to Air, Water, Nourishment, Light, Movement, Thermal Comfort, Sound, Materials, Mind, Community & Innovation.

What is WELL consulting?

A WELL AP or WELL consultant is there to assist a project team through the certification process, ensuring maximum points are scored along the way by offering expert advice not just on how to lock-in points but also the principles that lie behind them. As a result, the project has every chance of becoming a model of health and wellness in the built environment.

Additionally, a WELL consultant’s skill set might include wellness interior design, biophilic design, knowledge in healthy buildings and consideration for sustainability / green buildings, a WELL building’s close cousin, as well as expertise in health and fitness, or as WELL like to call it ‘Physical Activity’, ‘Movement’ and ‘Nourishment’.

What is the intent of WELL Precondition / Feature V01 / Active Buildings & Communities?

Fundamentally this is about promoting movement and physical activity in all its guises within the context of the built environment, specifically as a way to reduce sedentary behavior in the workplace thanks to targeted design interventions, a.k.a ‘active design’.

inactivity is a health problem because it can lead to chronic diseases and premature mortality, that may sound like hyperbole but many people spend 8hrs or more in their office five days a week and will have a career that spans decades. That’s potentially a lot of inactivity!

The answer to this lies in promoting active design in our healthy buildings, this may be by encouraging greater use of stairwells rather than an elevator, cycling into work rather than driving, engaging in a group physical activity class during the working week with office colleagues, using a standing desk to reduce lower back pain, and so on.

How to design active buildings & communities for this WELL feature

In this Precondition WELL are looking for projects to achieve at least one point from V03: Circulation Network, V04: Facilities for Active Occupants. V05: Site Planning and Selection and V08: Physical Activity Spaces and Equipment.

This makes the Precondition highly achievable in our opinion but remember that the aim with WELL is never just to scrape through with the minimal investment of time and energy possible but rather to look for synergies between features and, where possible, creative solutions to their requirements that have a positive impact on occupant health.

V03: See here for our WELL AP expert opinion on the active design / stairwell strategies in Movement Feature V03

V04: We have written here on Facilities for Active Occupants, effectively these are bike storage, showers and changing facilities on site in adequate numbers to accommodate building users.

V05: See here for our insights into Site Planning & Selection feature in the WELL healthy building standard.

V08: We have previously written (here) in some detail about this WELL feature on Physical Activity Spaces and Gym Equipment as specialists in this particular field of gym design and gym equipment procurement.

To enquire about our services as WELL consultants, wellness real estate and healthy building experts, email us here.

Active Stairs: Well Building Standard Movement V03 — Biofilico Wellness Interiors

A consultant's response to the WELL Building Standard Feature: Movement V03 / Circulation Network and Active Design Principles

What is the WELL Building Standard?

The WELL Certification process for WELL V2 is now widely established as the leading healthy building and wellness real estate standard in the world today. It is essentially a series of guidelines backed by rigorous scientific research, including active design principles and active design strategies, that when taken together, will guide a real estate project, whether new build construction or refurbishment and fit-out, towards a final product that is aligned with human health and wellness.

Sections of the V2 standard are dedicated to Air, Water, Nourishment, Light, Movement, Thermal Comfort, Sound, Materials, Mind, Community & Innovation.

What is WELL consulting?

A WELL AP or WELL consultant is there to assist a project team through the certification process, ensuring maximum points are scored along the way by offering expert advice not just on how to lock-in points but also the principles that lie behind them. Building owners play a crucial role in promoting physical activity through active design strategies. As a result, the project has every chance of becoming a model of health and wellness in the built environment.

Additionally, a WELL consultant’s skill set might include wellness interior design, knowledge in healthy buildings and consideration for sustainability / green buildings, a WELL building’s close cousin, as well as expertise in health and fitness, or as WELL like to call it ‘Physical Activity‘, ‘Movement‘ and ‘Nourishment’.

What healthy building issue is WELL Feature Movement V03 addressing to encourage physical activity?

In this feature of the WELL building certification we are dealing with, wait for it… staircases! As consultants specialising in the field of wellness real estate, we admit to getting quite excited about stairwells as they represent an often neglected corner of an office or residential building that in a sense has physical activity built into it, however far too often they are not decorated with anything beyond whitewash and basic directional signage.

A healthy building needs to switch its priorities to make the stairwells a feature that regular occupants want to use, even enjoy using. To do that, WELL encourages projects to think about aesthetics, visibility and signage prompts.

The underlying problem is, once again, physical inactivity and sedentary lifestyles. The solution is more movement during the work day and that means, amongst other things such as physical activity spaces and physical activity opportunities), climbing stairs more often and designing spaces that encourage physical activity.

Where did this WELL movement feature draw its inspiration?

The researchers went looking for ‘active design’ case studies from airports, healthcare facilities, universities and offices, all leading them to the conclusion that an enhanced stairwell experience combined with subtle but effective prompts nearby in the form of permanent signage, all have a tangible impact on overall movement and activity levels in the workplace. The concept of 'active living' and 'promoting physical activity' through architectural principles and urban design also served as inspiration for these strategies.

What do we mean by ‘enhanced aesthetics' in this WELL healthy building feature?

For us, this is about being creative with a minimal budget. The reality is that projects are unlikely to apply huge budget per floor, imagine a 10 story building for example, even at a 3,000 euro budget per floor that still adds up to 30,000 euro in total just for active design stairwells. So how do we recommend using what minimal budget is on offer?

Options include flooring, wall decor, lighting, plats or biophilia in general, music speakers even artworks or motivation vinyls on the walls. It’s about making the stairwells bright, visually pleasant and dynamic areas rather than cold, heartless corners of the building. Incorporating visually appealing stairs and feature stairs can significantly enhance the aesthetic appeal and promote physical activity.

Artworks need not be originals, prints will do here. Wall decor can be blocks of brightly coloured organic / low-VOC paint, or large format vinyls. Flooring needs to be extremely hard wearing for obvious reasons but it could be brightly coloured, or have a biophilia, nature-inspired pattern such as the one in our concept design above for a corporate headquarters with a healthy building objective in Switzerland. Bright and or coloured LED lighting can also bring life to a dark stairwell with no natural light.

If the option is available, a WELL AP should lobby the master-planners and architects on a new build construction project to position stairwells in a location that makes them visible and easily accessible to all regular building occupants. It’s all about an active design approach, placing stairs not as a Plan B but as a preferred option, or Plan A,… within reason!

WELL / movement V03 / Part 1: Design Visually Appealing Stairs (1 point)

There is no limit to how far this creativity can be pushed clearly but in terms of securing a point for this WELL healthy building feature, the certification standard is looking for at****least one staircase with a minimum of two****features from the list below on each floor. Central stairs and those in educational and auditorium spaces are prime examples of where these design elements can be applied:

1. Music

2. Artwork

3. Light levels of at least 215 lux when in use

4. Windows or skylights that provide access to daylight

5. Natural design elements (e.g., plants, water features, images of nature)

6. Gamification

WELL / movement V03 / part 2: signage prompts (1 point)

This is where a WELL AP and consultant team need to align with the signage consultants, or indeed take ownership of this element of the overall signage plan whilst integrating the design and production with the rest of the project's signage style.

At least on staircase servicing all floors needs point-of-decision signage near the main entrance or reception desk , at the elevator or escalators, and at the base / entry points of the stairs. The objective here is to grab the attention of building users just before they commit to taking the elevator or escalator instead of taking the stairs.

We want to nudge them in the direction of the stairs, this could be done in a very simple, neutral tone or indeed with something more playful that challenges the users to ‘burn some extra calories while you work', or ‘hit those quads and hams', as long the messaging is positive, not negative.

Finally, additional wayfinding signage may be required if the stairs are not visible from the location of the signage prompts, to ensure users do not get lost and change their mind!

WELL / movement V03 / part 3: promote visible stairs for improved employee health (1 point)

As a WELL consultant, we find this to can be a challenging point to win, as it requires at least one staircase servicing all floors that is open to regular occupants of the healthy building and located before elevators or escalators.

Why is this a challenge? Quite simply because we are rubbing up against the requirements or the building engineers and architects, so ‘active design’ requirements often have to take a back seat. Additionally, considerations such as building codes and mental health must be factored into the design of visible stairs. That said, the point is there for the taking if the project’s stairs happens to fit within these requirements.

If you are interested in our services helping you create active design stairwells on your real estate project for WELL Movement V03,contact us here.

WELL Building Standard Movement V05 Site Planning & Selection

A WELL consultant responds to WELL Building Standard feature: Movement V05 Site Planning & Selection

What is the WELL Building Standard?

The WELL Certification process for WELL V2 is now widely established as the leading healthy building and wellness real estate standard in the world today. It is essentially a series of guidelines backed by rigorous scientific research, that when taken together, will guide a real estate project, whether new build construction or refurbishment and fit-out, towards a final product that is aligned with human health and wellness.

Sections of the V2 standard are dedicated to Air, Water, Nourishment, Light, Movement, Thermal Comfort, Sound, Materials, Mind, Community & Innovation.

What is WELL consulting?

A WELL AP or WELL consultant is there to assist a project team through the certification process, ensuring maximum points are scored along the way by offering expert advice not just on how to lock-in points but also the principles that lie behind them. As a result, the project has every chance of becoming a model of health and wellness in the built environment.

Additionally, a WELL consultant’s skill set might include wellness interior design, biophilic design, knowledge in healthy buildings and consideration for sustainability / green buildings, a WELL building’s close cousin, as well as expertise in health and fitness, or as WELL like to call it ‘Physical Activity’, ‘Movement’ and ‘Nourishment’.

What is the main focus of this WELL healthy building feature?

This feature is very similar to some of the features in green building standards such as BREEAM and the USGBC LEED that consider site selection as one of the very earliest decisions for any project to ensure that the result is a piece of real estate in tune with people and planet.

Specifically then, WELL are looking for evidence that the area around the project promotes walkability and has access to public transportation. Read on to discover what that means in practice… there are no fewer than four points on offer here within the WELL certified process after all!

What problem is this healthy building feature addressing?

The WELL Standard make the point that contemporary real estate has a tendency to make our lives easier, more comfortable, less strenuous physically - unlike healthy buildings. This contributes to the worrying dominance of largely sedentary lifestyles in the developed world today.

To combat that this WELL feature looks to raise awareness around active design strategies in interiors but also, just as importantly, to a project’s location and its relationship with physical activity opportunities.

How does site planning connect with physical activity?

Their basic premise here is that thoughtful site planning can improve community health; walkable neighborhoods tend to align proximity, with connectivity, density, safety and aesthetics. They take into account a wide variety of different user profiles, promoting mobility for all.

Even tall buildings cna have a genuine impact on the community through its ground-level architectural choices, by adding public walkways, landscaping and so on that encourage walkability and nature interaction.

Prioritising pedestrians for a healthy community (2 points)

Part 1: STREETS: Projects need to provide at least one building entrance that links to a pedestrian walkway as well as one of a variety of technical considerations such as its WalkScore, vehicle traffic restrictions and the presence of continuous sidewalks. In other words, pedestrians need to be treated with respect, indeed encouraged in the streets surrounding the project. We can imagine this being especially problematic in some US cities where the car tends to dominate the streets still.

Part 2: ENVIRONMENT: Exterior building walls need to include some combination of transparent glazing, overhangs, murals, biophilic design and mixed design features to give the overall impression of a building designed to be aesthetically pleasing for pedestrians in the area.

Access to mass transport (2 points)

For an extra two points, this WELL feature requires that all spaces are located within an area with a specific Transit Score, in vicinity to a bus network and in walking distance to a bus rapid transit stop, rail station or ferry service.

This is to ensure that public transport can be the primary way for regular building occupants to travel to and from the site, if they are not cycling or jogging in.

This is to reduce car usage, which in turn lowers greenhouse gas emissions and lowers our collective impact on the environment, whilst also requiring less car park spaces in urban hubs.

To discuss our consultancy services as WELL Healthy Building experts, contact us here

WELL Building Feature V11: Ergonomics Programming

A consultants response to the WELL Building Standard’s Movement Feature V11: Ergonomics Programming

What is the WELL Building Standard?

The WELL Certification process for WELL V2 is now widely established as the leading healthy building and wellness real estate standard in the world today.

It is essentially a series of guidelines backed by rigorous scientific research, that when taken together, will guide a real estate project, whether new build construction or refurbishment and fit-out, towards a final product that is aligned with human health and wellness.

Sections of the V2 standard are dedicated to Air, Water, Nourishment, Light, Movement, Thermal Comfort, Sound, Materials, Mind, Community & Innovation.

What is WELL consulting?

A WELL AP or WELL consultant is there to assist a project team through the certification process, ensuring maximum points are scored along the way by offering expert advice not just on how to lock-in points but also the principles that lie behind them. As a result, the project has every chance of becoming a model of health and wellness in the built environment.

Additionally, a WELL consultant’s skill set might include wellness interior design, biophilic design, knowledge in healthy buildings and consideration for sustainability / green buildings, a WELL building’s close cousin, as well as expertise in health and fitness, or as WELL like to call it ‘Physical Activity’, ‘Movement’ and ‘Nourishment’.

What is required from projects pursuing WELL Feature / Movement V11 Ergonomics Programming?

Real estate and healthy building projects pursuing WELL Certification are, for feature V11, required to engage with a certified ergonomist to assist in creating comfortable workstations for all staff in order to avoid the most common issues such as lower back pain, wrist pain or a sore neck.

This specialist should also be brought in for regular visits to make ongoing improvements. Given the shift to working from home of late, he/she is also to assist with remote workers’ ergonomics arrangements.

Why is ergonomics important for a healthy building or healthy workplace?

In short, we’re confronting musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) here, one of the primary health risks in the modern workplace that has a direct correlation with absenteeism / sick days and low productivity due to anxiety, discomfort and low level stress.

What does the WELL standard aim to do about it?

An ergonomics specialist will look at the physical environment, for example sit-stand desks or active workstations, as well as internal organizational culture / behavior and, especially in blue collar circumstances, the type of movements and processes involved in the work itself.

• For a separate blog article on ergonomic furniture in a healthy office design see our blog post here

• See our 9-point guide to healthy buildings here.

Implementing an ergonomics program for WELL Feature V11 (1 point)

Firstly, in terms of human resources, a project must either engage with a certified ergonomist / consultant for help with this feature or have an employee with a similar certification and iis formally responsible for delivering the program.

In other words, this needs to be handled by someone who knows what they are doing and WELL want to see proof of a company taking it seriously!

Additionally, a program needs to include stakeholder consultations, a task analysis by a certified ergonomist, individual ergonomic assessments either virtually or in-person on an annual basis after initial employee on-boarding.

This program also needs to be backed up by an engagement plan with workshops or annual training delivered by the certified ergonomist.

Ergonomic improvements for a healthy workplace (1 point)

A project pursuing WELL certification Feature V11 needs to either describe how this feature informed their decisions in Feature V02 Ergonomics Workstation Design and V07 Active Furnishings.

Alternatively, the project team show that they have heard individual ergonomic needs of employees and have actioned a plan to respond to them, with a timeline communicated to those individuals.

Supporting remote work ergonomics (1 point)

Finally, a project team ought to show they have taken into consideration working from home ergonomics too, tailoring parts of the plan above to those spending time at home on a regular basis for remote work, this includes making ergonomic furnishings available to remote workers, whether via a subsidy or reimbursement.

We hope this article has proven useful! Contact us here to discuss how we can help you with workplace wellness and the WELL Building Certification process.

WELL building standard movement V07 active furnishings

A consultant’s response to the WELL healthy building standard feature ‘V07 active furnishings’

our standing desk at Casa Biofilico, Barcelona, Spain - an example of active furnishing

What is the WELL Building Standard?

The WELL Certification process for WELL V2 is now widely established as the leading healthy building and wellness real estate standard in the world today. It is essentially a series of guidelines backed by rigorous scientific research, that when taken together, will guide a real estate project, whether new build construction or refurbishment and fit-out, towards a final product that is aligned with human health and wellness.

Sections of the V2 standard are dedicated to Air, Water, Nourishment, Light, Movement, Thermal Comfort, Sound, Materials, Mind, Community & Innovation.

What is WELL consulting?

A WELL AP or WELL consultant is there to assist a project team through the certification process, ensuring maximum points are scored along the way by offering expert advice not just on how to lock-in points but also the principles that lie behind them. As a result, the project has every chance of becoming a model of health and wellness in the built environment.

Additionally, a WELL consultant’s skill set might include wellness interior design, biophilic design, knowledge in healthy buildings and consideration for sustainability / green buildings, a WELL building’s close cousin, as well as expertise in health and fitness, or as WELL like to call it ‘Physical Activity’, ‘Movement’ and ‘Nourishment’.

What problem does WELL Movement V07 active furnishings address?

In this Movement feature of the WELL Building Standard, the credit is focused on sit-stand desks and treadmill desks. The example from Casa Biofilico above shows a desk that can be used at variably heights, either seated or standing.

In reality, I tend to spend most of the morning standing and then alternate more between sitting / standing in the afternoons as my legs became a little more tired.

That said, I train for 90-minutes every morning before work so by the time I hit my desk, I have been pretty ‘active’ already and am ready for my first caffeine hit!. WELL are mostly concerned with pathologically sedentary behavior and those who spend 8 hours or more in a seated position five days per week, for years and years on end.

This has a direct correlation with obesity levels, Type 2 diabetes and premature mortality. We are simply not wired to spend our lives like this. Frequent ‘movement snacks’ during the day are essential to break up the workday and integrate modest amounts of movement at frequent intervals.

What are active furnishings?

Active workstations are those that offer multiple height options, allowing a worker to sit or stand, easily changing the height of the desk whilst maintaining a comfortable position, head up, shoulders back, not slouched in a chair.

Standing has been shown to burn more energy than being seated but that is not actually the point here, we’re looking to mix it up during the day, not just sitting, but not just standing either. We want workers to move around every hour or so, change position, stand for a bit, then sit, or take a break.

Treadmill desks are more common in the US than the UK or Europe but they are a valuable addition to a workspace, albeit a relatively expensive one. Certain tasks are better adapting to a treadmill desk than others. Deep work is not going to happen here, in my opinion, but lighter loads such as basic admin or responding to emails can certainly be done whilst walking slowly on a treadmill desk.

What do projects pursuing WELL certification need to do for 2 points in this movement feature?

Employers need to invest in active workstations for a minimum of 50% (1 point) or 90% (2 points) of the workforce. This does not mean that all those workers need to spend their time working standing up, far from it and in any case, it would be impossible to police that in practice.

The feature only specifies simply that the desks or workstations need to be provided, how they are used by employees is not reflected in the WELL score, that part then comes down to signage prompts, positive peer pressure / acceptability of working while standing or walking on a treadmill, and so on.

What type of active workstations are suitable for WELL V07 active furnishings?

In our home office, we currently use a manually adjustable desk, leaving it in a standing position permanently and then pairing it with an office stool rather than an office chair. This combo works well for us and encourages more standing than sitting.

Electrically powered sit-stand desks are of course more convenient and better suited to shared desk areas where a variety of different workers will use the desk each week, requiring a corresponding range of heights.

In the photo above from our Casa Biofilico project you can see what the WELL healthy building standard refers to as a ‘supplemental solution’, allowing “all or part of the work surface and all input devices (monitor or screen, keyboard, mouse) to be raised or lowered to seated or standing heights”. Effectively it is an extension of an existing desk, this works out to be a cost-effective solution.

Additionally, WELL also recognises treadmill desks, bicycle desks and stepper machine desks, although for us these would not replace a standard sit-stand desk, rather being supplement to the former.

We hope this article has proven useful! Contact us here to discuss how we can help you with workplace wellness programs and the WELL Building Certification process

WELL Building Standard: Movement V10 Self-Monitoring

a WELL consultant’s response to WELL Building Certification Feature ‘Movement V10 Self-monitoring’

What is the WELL Building Standard?

The WELL Certification process for WELL V2 is now widely established as the leading healthy building and wellness real estate standard in the world today. It is essentially a series of guidelines backed by rigorous scientific research, that when taken together, will guide a real estate project, whether new build construction or refurbishment and fit-out, towards a final product that is aligned with human health and wellness.

Sections of the V2 standard are dedicated to Air, Water, Nourishment, Light, Movement, Thermal Comfort, Sound, Materials, Mind, Community & Innovation.

What is WELL consulting?

A WELL AP or WELL consultant is there to assist a project team through the certification process, ensuring maximum points are scored along the way by offering expert advice not just on how to lock-in points but also the principles that lie behind them. As a result, the project has every chance of becoming a model of health and wellness in the built environment.

Additionally, a WELL consultant’s skill set might include wellness interior design, biophilic design, knowledge in healthy buildings and consideration for sustainability / green buildings, a WELL building’s close cousin, as well as expertise in health and fitness, or as WELL like to call it ‘Physical Activity’, ‘Movement’ and ‘Nourishment’.

What does this WELL healthy building feature focus on?

A developer, employer or landlord provides wearable fitness monitors for physical activity and healthy behaviors at a subsidized cost to all employees / regular building occupants.

What good is a wearable in promoting a healthy building? It provides reliable, or at least more reliable than ‘self reported data’ from building occupants on how active a lifestyle they lead during the working week.

This is not to pry into their personal lives but simply to gauge whether the facilities provided within the healthy building, such as physical activity spaces are being put to good use.

What can tech do in promoting physical activity in a healthy building?

Yes, this can seem an intangible argument and clearly an apple watch or Fitbit alone is not going to make much difference by itself however within the context of a suite of measures that combine hardware and software, physical activity programming for workplace wellness as well as an on-site fitness room with fitness equipment, the wearables can be a valuable part of the package.

To answer the privacy concern head on, WELL Feature V10 suggests selecting a piece of tech that has adequate privacy measures in place - to be clear, the purpose is not for individuals to upload their data for the HR department or external workplace wellness consultant to review, although we believe that there are potential gains in some form of gamification of workplace activity with, for example, prizes for those who take more than 10,000 steps inside the building in a month, etc.

The point here is not any one individual’s performance, quite the opposite, we’re simply looking to use the wearables to promote activity and monitor successes at an individual level, there is no requisite to share this info at all within the WELL standard. Each business / employer is then free to take additional steps as they see fit, or indeed employees may choose to form their own social groups for sharing limited amounts of data amongst themselves, assuming they all have the same piece of tech or software.

How to use wearable tech in WELL V10 self-monitoring

The WELL standard specifies that ALL eligible employees should be provided with a wearable fitness monitor device with the following requirements:

1. Available at no cost or subsidized by at least 50%.

2. Allow users to monitor their own metrics over time (i.e., provides a dashboard where individual metrics are aggregated).

3. Measure at least two physical activity metrics (e.g., steps, floors climbed, activity minutes).

4. Measure at least one additional health behavior (e.g., mindfulness practice, sleep).

As WELL consultants, how do we respond to this feature?

At least in its current format, the problem we have with this feature of the WELL healthy building standard is that it is better suited to smaller scale buildings or workforces, assuming that no allowance is made for a project looking to take a random sample of the workforce as a trial to test the impact of their investment in wearables.

Many people will already have their own wearable tech, or use smartphone apps that do some or all of the same work for them. One question we’d raise with WELL on that basis is whether we could use a hybrid approach of a client sponsoring wearables only for those people who do not have suitable tech already.

Going one step further, we would in future like to explore opportunities to take a sample of data from amongst a workforce to analyse the impact of new active design features in a building for example (with each individual’s consent, or perhaps while wearing the monitor only in the office).

We have heard of problems at other organizations where wearables given to staff were seen as a way to monitor them, or check if they were working at their desks, so there are many hurdles to overcome here in order to leverage occupant movement data in a way that respects privacy.

We shall continue to explore this theme and propose creative solutions to our clients!

We hope this article has proven useful! Contact us here to discuss how we can help you with workplace wellness programs and the WELL Building Certification process

WELL MOVEMENT V04 Facilities for Active Occupants

a consultant’s response to WELL Building Certification Feature ‘Movement V04 / Facilities for Active Occupants’

What is the WELL Building Standard?

The WELL Certification process for WELL V2 is now widely established as the leading healthy building and wellness real estate standard in the world today. It is essentially a series of guidelines backed by rigorous scientific research, that when taken together, will guide a real estate project, whether new build construction or refurbishment and fit-out, towards a final product that is aligned with human health and wellness.

Sections of the V2 standard are dedicated to Air, Water, Nourishment, Light, Movement, Thermal Comfort, Sound, Materials, Mind, Community & Innovation.

What is WELL consulting?

A WELL AP or WELL consultant is there to assist a project team through the certification process, ensuring maximum points are scored along the way by offering expert advice not just on how to lock-in points but also the principles that lie behind them. As a result, the project has every chance of becoming a model of health and wellness in the built environment.

Additionally, a WELL consultant’s skill set might include wellness interior design, biophilic design, knowledge in healthy buildings and consideration for sustainability / green buildings, a WELL building’s close cousin, as well as expertise in health and fitness, or as WELL like to call it ‘Physical Activity’, ‘Movement’ and ‘Nourishment’.

What is main focus of WELL Movement V04 Facilities for Active Occupants?

Essentially we are looking at bike storage facilities for those wishing to travel to their workplace by bike, as well as changing facilities and lockers for all those arriving by other forms of active transport, whether it be jogging or simply in need of a shower after a long, hot commute into the office in summer!

Nowadays these are essential components in a healthy building, either with or without a WELL certification.

The target audience here is active commuters but also active occupants - those showers can also encourage employees to go for a run after work, take a shower and then head out for a social appointment with friends, for example.

What issue is WELL Movement V04 Facilities for Active Occupants addressing?

On one level, it is about facilitating the lives of those who wish to travel under their own steam, by jogging or cycling into work, an active commuter in other words. These employees will be generally fitter, healthier and more productive in the workplace, with less days off (unless they end up hitting the IronMan circuit of course!) and less sick days. We can imagine this being especially important in the US where car culture and the lateral spread of cities makes a cycle commute more of a challenge.

In another sense, these active commuters are also placing less pressure on the road networks, they are not polluting, nor are they using public transport, so it is a win-win for both sides.

WELL Movement V04 Cycling Network & Bike Parking

Cycling infrastructure for a healthy building going for WELL Certification can be linked to location, tapping into the cycling network such as cycle lanes and bike sharing schemes.

Additionally, bike parking can be split into short-term (i.e. a public bike rack) for 2.5% of peak visitors, with a minimum of four spaces per building.

Long-term parking would be something like a dedicated bike room or bike wall with space for 5% of regular building occupants and a minimum of four per building. Finally, this same bike room, should provide a basic set of tools for cyclists to fix a tyre. Basic stuff but any cyclist will be glad to find a repair kit one day!

An extension of this we have seen in some healthy building case studies is to bring in a local bike mechanic every three months or so to give the regular cyclists a free bike tuning to ensure they are riding on safe tyres, brakes and so on.

All of the above simply needs to be verified by on-site photographs and a Letter of Assurance – by an architect or designer.

WELL Movement V04 On-site Shower Facilities

Showers, lockers and changing facilities come as a cluster for obvious reasons, and these elements need to be co-located next to each other, with five lockers per shower and the only other variable being the total requisite number of showers on offer within the healthy building to secure another point within WELL V04.

Essentially the calculation is 1 + 1 extra shower for 150 occupants above 100 for any WELL project below 1000 regular occupants.

If you are interested in our services helping you create a physical activity space / equipped gym for WELL Movement V08, contact us here.

Active design - definition and perspective

The concept of ‘active design’ comes up a lot in contemporary debate around how to design interiors, buildings and communities that prioritise human health and wellbeing, and therefore - how to get healthy by active design.

Active design strategies exist to aid a healthy lifestyle and can include dedicated bicycle pathways, bike sharing schemes, and micro-parks designed to reduce air pollution levels. 

Here is a short introduction to this innovative new approach that combines elements of fitness, design and architecture in one.

Active design definition and why do we need it?

Unless you have been living under a duvet for the last decade you’ll have heard mention of the lifestyle disease epidemic affecting the western world. 

Physical inactivity, poor diet and smoking are one side of the coin while obesity, Type 2 diabetes and chronic heart disease the other. 

Together they are putting unprecedented pressure on state healthcare systems that are already close to buckling with limited resources.

As governments have sought for ways to improve the situation, active design has become a rallying cry for health conscious city planners, architects and interior designers aiming to prevent ‘rather’ than ‘cure’.

Active design definition

As a set of building and planning principles, active design exists to aid healthy lifestyle - the principles of active design exist to promote physical activity, by immersing them into everyday activities.

Healthy placemaking through active building design

Examples of creating a healthy community or healthy city include dedicated bicycle pathways and bike sharing schemes to reduce car use and lower pollution levels while encouraging physical activity. 

The difference between passive and active design can be clearly seen in strategic use of landscaping that helps create attractive walkways that encourage walking and interaction outdoors - New York’s now legendary  Highline being one obvious example, unlike passive design that is mainly focused on building orientation in a way that takes advantage of the climate the most.

Active design building encourages physical activity

One of the significant benefits of active designs is that it encourages physical activity.

Stairwell prompts in office and residential buildings can make the difference between using an elevator 20 times per day to go from ground to first floor vs burning an additional 200 total calories taking the stairs. 

Something as simple as a notice adjacent to a stairwell entrance can be enough to encourage greater stair use, such prompts need to be easily visible and graphically engaging.

Incorporating showers, changing rooms, lockers and bike racks in office buildings for workers also encourages cycling to work as well as lunchtime jogs or workouts.

Nature contact thanks to active building design

Active building design mainly refers to public landscaping, city centre micro-parks designed to reduce air pollution levels and other opportunities to connect with nature in an urban environment have all been shown to help reduce anxiety, promote a sense of vitality and restore nature-connectedness for improved mental wellbeing even in relatively short periods of time.

A series of micro-parks in London UK were designed to offer small doses of nature in a densely urban context surrounded by office high-rises, but also to encourage active sustainable design in natural surroundings.

How did we get here?

In the last half-century, the nature of work has fundamentally shifted. No longer are the majority of people toiling in fields, or doing manual labour in factories, the new normal is to be in an office all day, at a desk, in front of a screen, with or without a natural light source nearby.

From a meta history perspective, this is a long way from an evolutionary correct norm that our bodies were built for. ‘Active design’ is a way to incorporate activity prompts and hacks into the built environment as a way to combat the risk of endless hours of sitting.

Active design & ‘the sitting problem

A ‘nature knows best’ health philosophy gives a clear set of guidelines when addressing lifestyle issues such as whether sitting is truly the new smoking, as the media have dubbed it. 

Here we combine evolution-based thinking with active design principles to explore the topic of 21st century sedentary living.

Less physical activity at work

Physical activity, once so intimately connected with our daily lives going all the way back to hunter gatherer times, is no longer a fundamental part of work for many of us, let alone home life, which is something the rise of active design is about to change.

One recent study shows that this equates to a reduction in calorie consumption of around 100 calories / day  in the US and can therefore be linked to a ‘significant portion’ of the increase in mean body mass across the US population in the past 50 years. In other words, the US population is getting more obese because it spends less time moving.

Physical inactivity at home

The dominance of televisions and computers during free time at home is another contributing factor to the total amount of time the average person spends sitting down, not expending any energy each day.

Overall this equates to a massive problem of physical inactivity in both junior and adult populations in the western world and that, put simply, is bad news for obesity levels, diabetes and heart disease.

Lower back pain in office workers

Prolonged periods of sitting have a direct impact on hip mobility while also being a major cause of lower back pain, which is why active design perspective has introduced sit- stand desks in offices, to help with the pain. Even sitting for shorter stretches of time is an improvement, which is where ‘active design’ tactics that encourage small movement snacks during the day can provide a solution.

Sit-stand desks in healthy offices - products of active design

Sit-stand desks are the real example of what active design perspective can do for your health, especially in the workplace. Products such as the Human Scale desk converter help encourage a combination of sitting and standing at work, giving the desk owner the option to adjust desk height at will throughout the day. 

Most people will find the afternoons tiring after a full morning on their feet, so a mobility ball under the desk can help, as can the option to move elsewhere in the office to change position for a while. It is all about mixing things up according to the type of work taking place.

A Cochrane review of existing research showed that the main benefit of investing in one of these desks, or an extension for an existing desk, is to reduce the total amount of time an office worker spends sitting down during their work day as well as to reduce the number of sitting bouts over 30 minutes in duration. 

Our own anecdotal evidence of using them for the past six years or so is that they make a massive difference for lower back pain sufferers, quite literally removing the issue from the equation for as long as one can stay off the chair. Mix that with a program of core strength and mobility exercises and it is a winning formula. We’ve tried it, changed our habits and will never go back!

Lifestyle exercise at work - more active design applications

Lifestyle exercise is also part of active design perspective, and it encourages office workers to integrate short periods of low to moderate activity into their day, the idea being to cumulatively piece together a meaningful amount of movement through a combination of trips to the water cooler, up and down stairs, for a walk around the block, and so on over the course of the day. Think of the often quoted “10,000 steps” concept.

Signage prompts in office active  design

Simple signage prompts are a seemingly obvious yet remarkably effective way of encouraging office workers to stay active, use the stairs and say no to the elevator, assuming a reasonable number of floors are required!

We hope that by learning more active design, you’ll manage to garner a clearer insight and wish to incorporate it into your lifestyle or your workplace. Active design concepts have numerous positive effects not just on your body, but your overall health, not to mention the productivity and focus felt positive effects.

To Conclude

Active Design Strategies to Promote Physical Activity and Wellness

In today's sedentary world, active design has become increasingly relevant in promoting physical activity and healthy lifestyles.

Active design strategies aim to integrate fitness and wellness into the built environment, including buildings, interiors, and communities.

By incorporating active design principles such as bike paths, stair prompts, and sit-stand desks, designers and architects can encourage physical activity and combat the risk of lifestyle diseases such as obesity, Type 2 diabetes, and chronic heart disease.

By promoting more active and healthier lifestyles, active design is an essential step towards improving public health and well-being.

The Importance of Active Design in All Design Projects

Active design is not limited to fitness and wellness-oriented projects, but should be considered in all design projects. It's important for designers and architects to recognize the impact that the built environment has on human health and well-being.

Incorporating active decoration and design principles such as natural light, ventilation, and access to green spaces can improve mental and physical health, productivity, and overall well-being.

As we continue to face challenges with sedentary lifestyles and lifestyle diseases, active design is a vital aspect of modern design practices, and should be a fundamental consideration in all projects.

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If you would like to know more about how we can help you design a healthier, more active office, contact us via email on design @biofilico.com.

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