Wellbeing and buildings

In 2012, Dodge et al proposed that wellbeing could be defined as ‘…when individuals have the psychological, social and physical resources they need to meet a particular psychological, social and/or physical challenge’.

The 2013 Measuring National Well-being programme suggested that the factors most strongly associated with personal well-being are:

• Health.
• Employment status.
• Relationship status.

Of these three factors, health had the strongest relationship with wellbeing.

The Measuring National Well-being national debate identified a range of other less significant factors associated with personal well-being, including:

• Economic security.
• Job satisfaction.
• Work-life balance.
• Education and training.
• Local and natural environment.

Articles about wellbeing on Designing Buildings Wiki include:

• Daylight benefits in healthcare buildings.
• Integrated modelling, simulation and visualisation (MSV) for sustainable built healing environments (BHEs).
• A measure of net well-being that incorporates the effect of housing environmental impacts.
• Well-being and regeneration: Reflections from Carpenters Estate.
• Anatomy of low carbon retrofits: evidence from owner-occupied superhomes.
• The impact of the design of the Psychiatric inpatient facility on perceptions of Carer wellbeing.
• Creating strong communities – measuring social sustainability in new housing development.
• The design of extra care housing for older people and its impact on wellbeing: The East Sussex perspective.
• The daylight factor.
• Ubiquitous sensors to assess people’s energy consumption and wellbeing in domestic environments.
• Airtightness of energy efficient buildings.
• Adapting 1965-1980 semi-detached dwellings in the UK to reduce summer overheating and the effect of the 2010 Building Regulations.
• Transitioning to eco-cities: Reducing carbon emissions while improving urban welfare.
• A case study of adopting BIT-Kit: A method uncovering the impact buildings have on people.
• The real cost of poor housing.
• Health and wellbeing impacts of natural and artificial lighting.
• Health and wellbeing at Kings Cross.
• Wellbeing and creativity in workplace design - case studies.

Most western developed countries now measure wellbeing as part of their national statistics. The UK reported the following in their latest 2013-2015 report "Those who identify as gay or lesbian, or bisexual report lower well-being than the UK average for all personal well-being measures. This difference is largest for feelings of anxiety."

It was reported by Bobby Kennedy that GDP measures everything in a country apart from the most important thing, wellbeing, and we need to use wellbeing to measure our happiness. Bhutan is the first country in the world to measure their wellbeing or happiness.

[edit] Find out more

[edit] Related articles on Designing Buildings Wiki

• Assessing health and wellbeing in buildings.
• BRE wellbeing research paper competition.
• Building related illness.
• Building use studies (BUS).
• Indoor air quality.
• Indoor environmental quality.
• Maggie's Cancer Centre, Manchester.
• Light pollution.
• Sick building syndrome.
• TG10 2016 At a glance, wellbeing.
• The full cost of poor housing.
• Thermal comfort and wellbeing.
• Wellbeing and creativity in workplace design - case studies.
• WELL and BREEAM align.
• WELL Building Standard.
• What we know about wellbeing.

[edit] External references

• Measuring National Well-being programme.
• Dodge, R., Daly, A., Huyton, J., & Sanders, L. (2012). The challenge of defining wellbeing. International Journal of Wellbeing, 2(3), 222-235.