Wellness architecture redefines kitchen design for health-conscious homeowners.Vera Iconica Architecture
If you’ve been following architectural trends, you’re well aware of the importance of sustainability to a building’s success. It has moved from the earth-friendly movements of the 1970s to current building codes and project-enhancing certifications. Sustainable design is not just about saving water and energy, though. Indoor air quality, accessibility, biophilia and improved materials add environmental benefits to a space, but they have another outcome, too: They make a space healthier for occupants.
One of the most important, fastest-growing trends in the building industry is wellness architecture. Sustainability is about the health of the planet. Wellness architecture is about the health of its occupants, especially humans. It is influencing residential and commercial building design, building products, real estate development and real estate sales. All of these topics will be explored at DesignWell, a new conference to be held in San Diego from January 21 to 23, 2019, and among the first to exclusively address wellness architecture.
Architect Veronica Schreibeis Smith, founder and CEO of Vera Iconica Architecture in Jackson, Wyoming, is one of DesignWell’s featured speakers. These are the top three trends she’s seeing in residential wellness architecture, trends that can impact where and how you live.
Re-thinking Rooms
Spaces that were just for cooking and eating, for example, are now being re-thought to “promote life-enhancing daily habits and rituals,” Schreibeis Smith says. These can include meal prepping for the weekend athlete, meditating over a cup of freshly-brewed coffee, relaxing after a meal with a glass of wine, or gathering with friends for homemade pizza parties.“The modern day kitchen has seen only minor refinements,” the architect notes. “The need for convenience during the ’50s when many women joined the workforce pushed the industry to create innovations such as highly processed foods that could be stored longer, frozen TV dinners, and the microwave that had a lasting impact on both our diet and the actual design of the modern day kitchen.”
Working women (and men) are busier than ever now, but many are seeking foods, products, spaces and habits that enhance their health and well-being, as well as saving them time. This is spurring the popularity of combi-steam ovens, engineered stone counters, coffee systems, wine captains, pizza ovens and induction cooktops, for example. “Younger generations, specifically Millennials, value experience and well-being when making lifestyle choices,” Schreibeis Smith observes, adding, “This will significantly impact the building industry. We will see more re-thinking of each room in the house as younger generations more open to new ways of living surpass Baby Boomers in population and spending in the coming decade.”
Materials Awareness
“Consumers are beginning to monitor their food and personal care products for chemicals and toxins,” Schreibeis Smith comments. “This level of awareness is growing to include indoor air quality and conscientious selection of healthy materials.” No one wants to be part of the next toxic drywall or formaldehyde flooring news story. “Although sustainable materials remain a priority for professionals, there is a shift in focus to include healthy materials that harm neither the planet or humans within the building. This shift in the professionals’ focus aligns with the shifting awareness of the consumer for toxin-free food, products, and environment,” the architect points out.
Plants And Nature
“This inclusion of nature in design is proven to enhance cognitive performance, cleanse the air, lower stress, reduce toxins and utilize more renewable and sustainable resources,” Schreibeis Smith notes. This is not a new trend, she shares, but it is being used in interesting new ways: “New technology is developing that uses plants connected to computers as monitors for things like daylight and air quality. Some designers are challenging the intersection of architecture with other disciplines, such as microbiology or horticulture, to literally ‘grow’ buildings or graph tree cells onto a framework to create a living structure.”
Plants are showing up as finishes, edibles and vertical gardens, organic materials to replace synthetics and interior designs that use organic patterns (biophilia) and color palettes, she explains. Buyers are drawn to spaces like these, the architect reports. They prefer “developments that promote well-being, as opposed to being sold on bells and whistles, unaware of off-gassing materials or poor ventilation systems.”
This accounts for the fast-growing $134 billion wellness lifestyle real estate market — about half the size of the global green building industry, according to the Global Wellness Institute. “There are now more than 740 wellness real estate and community developments built or in development across 34 countries – a number that grows weekly,” according to the organization’s 2018 industry report.
Which of these trends inspires you the most? All will be strong and growing in the new year.