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 in the 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."

[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).
• Human comfort in buildings.
• 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.