HOUSE DOCTOR

Wellness is dependent on more than the gym you attend or the type of yoga you practise—the design of your home and office can boost your health and happiness, too

- CHRISTOPHER DEWOLF

How’s your sleep? Your answer may have less to do with you and more to do with the space you inhabit. A growing body of research has found that our homes, offices and public spaces have a direct impact on our health and well-being.

“We spend 90 per cent of our time indoors,” says Rowena Gonzalez, founder of Liquid Interiors, a Hong Kong-based interior design firm with a focus on wellness. Yet, so many indoor spaces are hurting us through poor air quality, nervewracking lighting, toxic materials and stultifying design that leave us feeling drained, anxious and generally unwell.

Now, there is a movement to undo that damage. In 2014, a group of entrepreneurs, scientists and environmentalists banded together to launch the Well Building Standard, a performance-based rating system meant to encourage spaces that are good for human health and the natural environment.

“The building standard is just a tool, but at the end of the day, it’s about human understanding and educating the general population about a better way of living and going to work,” says Xue Ya, director of the International Well Building Institute Asia.

“It came on the scene a few years ago and now it’s all everybody is talking about,” says Alessandro Bisagni, whose Hong Kong-based consultancy, Bee Incorporations, develops green building strategies. He says the new focus on wellness helps round out thinking about sustainable building, because there is a big overlap between buildings that are good for the earth and those that are good for your health.